#Except maybe something Moscow inspired?

[just-like-playing-tag]

[comfy-whumpee]

Father, Husband, Slave

Sequel to @ashintheairlikesnow​‘s piece, which has now been published. Savvie is her monster and is used with permission.

TW: abuse, implied child abuse/neglect, whumpee forced to have children with whumper, romantic whumper.

Taglist: @lonesome--hunter, @iaminamoodymoodtoday, @wildfaewhump, @ishouldblogmore, @lektricwhump, @that-one-thespian, @raigash, @burtlederp, @rosesareviolentlyread, @whumptywhumpdump

She makes him listen to her album for the entire drive. It’s an hour and twenty minutes to the airport, time enough for him to hear every track twice. She’s been all about Bella recently, the album she titled after the daughter whose name she does not truly know. But today, on their supposedly romantic getaway, she returns – as she always does – to Firecracker. The album she wrote for him.

 Except he hates it. It’s not for him. It’s for her image of him, the story she has composed around them both, the fairy tale curse he can’t break. While the children are locked away, and their Cinderella does her best to keep them safe, Jax is the boy with a shard digging against his heart, and Savvie is the Snow Queen that takes him away to her castle and refuses to let him go.

Firecracker is full of sweeping, gallant tunes that speak of classical romance, according to the reviews she had him read to her in the lounge on sunny afternoons. In Jax’s opinion, Firecracker is the assassination of his selfhood, dressed in pretty pictures to cover the obsession underneath. Nobody but his father knows that the album is about him, and that’s only if his dad found out about it, and recognises the childhood nickname he’d persuaded Savvie to use.

 Jax hates it. It’s the grand, heavy expectation of her so-called love, blasting out through the shitty car speaker on repeat while Savvie reminisces about each track and each moment of his captivity that inspired it, stories that he’s heard a thousand times before, and lived besides that.

 “I like h-hearing you talk about your music,” he tells her, between shudders of the shocks she laid on him, when they were back at home and he tried to persuade her to wait before dragging him out the door. He tells her this so that she’ll keep talking, and he barely has to reply.

 He didn’t know about the trip until ten minutes before they left. He’d known that she was up to something, and that she’d been moody recently, complaining about losing his audience for her practise time so that he could put the kids down for their naps. She’d been snappy at Izzy at breakfast, telling her not to look so miserable, not recognising the conciliatory smile as a performance his little girl had inherited straight from her father. He’d known the signs and hadn’t seen what was coming.

 He should have known. This is what he thinks about, as she drives him to the airport to take him to another country with his forged passport, for a holiday he doesn’t want, away from a home he hates and a family he loves. He should have known this was coming. Now, Izzy and Jamie are going to wake up without their father, and Hannah will only be able to say that he’s gone. She won’t be able to tell them that he’s coming back.

 He doesn’t know if he is.

 She’s always talked about moving them away. To Russia, she says, where classical musicians are respected and the language is as alien to Jax as hieroglyphics, and any law enforcement trying to reach him will be entangled hopelessly in red tape.

 He doesn’t know where they’re going. It’s a surprise, she says.

 He just hopes, once he’s at the airport, that the destination isn’t Moscow.

 Savvie lapses into silence as the album finishes. There’s a brief pause of silence before it repeats again, fading into a single sustained note.

 “This is good,” she sighs happily. “Time for just us two. You’ve been so preoccupied recently.”

 He was trying to teach Izzy to read.

 “You’re my husband, after all,” she reminds him, her eyes moving to him, chips of ice in a snow-white face. “I should be your priority.”

 “You are, Miss Savvie,” he tells her, rote and instant, words barren of feelings she won’t allow. Then, because he has to cover for those empty spaces, he adds, “I love you.”

 She melts whenever he says it first, but only on the surface. She’s frozen all the way down. “Oh, honey, I love you too. See, you’re doing so much better already.”

 His relationship to her is a performance on which he is graded. His reviews come daily, in words, or in actions, or in small cruelties towards his two helpless children, conceived only to expand her arsenal of weapons over him.

 He looks away from her eyes, when she glances over again. Izzy’s eyes are his hazel-brown, earth and warmth and golden light.

 Jamie’s too.

 But he can’t be a father right now. He’s her husband, Savannah Marcoset’s perfect, pliant man. The Snow Queen takes the winter with her wherever she goes.

 The fire that once defined him is a hearth, now. The only things left to be warmed by it are his children. When Savvie gets him alone, makes him alone, builds walls and drives wedges between himself and the children he was not supposed to love more than her, he allows the embers to hide under white ash, indistinguishable from snow.

 He tried. He tried not to love them. They told him not to. But it had come, hard and burning, a comet through Savvie’s cold winter sky. A falling star.

 What is it that happens in the story? Does love melt the boy’s frozen heart, or is it tears?

 He can’t remember. Maybe Savvie changed the channel before they reached the end.

 Firecracker ends for the second time. The airport is in sight. He still doesn’t know where he’s going, or if he’s coming back.

 She pulls up. He gives her the smile that Izzy learned, and she beams back, eyes lit with joy at separating him from everything else, again.

 He braves the question. “Where are we going, Miss Savvie?”

 She sparkles. White, distant stars in a cold black sky. “Russia.”

[wheel-of-fish]

By the Numbers: Ben Crawford, Ali Ewoldt, Jay Armstrong Johnson

By the Numbers:  The Ben Crawford/Ali Ewoldt/Jay Armstrong Johnson  Stream, August 22, 2020

[long-awaited submission from Aldebaran; I’m putting it behind a cut]

Oh my gosh, an epic stream deserves an epically long and epically late By the Numbers!  Come with me back in time, all the way back to two weeks ago, which in pandemic days is a month and a half.  Before we were treated to  Giant Ivan and Tiny Tamara in Moscow, there was The Swagger, The Disney Princess and The Bot…

This was a fantastically fun boot to watch as part of a group of enthusiastic Saturday Streamers!  Plusses included an earlier-in-his-run Ben “The Swagger” Crawford as the Phantom, with the spotlight on his booming baritone voice, and Ali “Paris’s Sweetheart” Ewoldt as an enchanting Christine.  And—Jay Armstrong Johnson (we’re pretty sure) as Raoul.  Or some semblance of Raoul.  Something was up with Raoul in this performance and the consensus was there may have been robotics involved. I won’t say more here; the streamers have it covered below and a fantastic set of memes by Onthevirg/faunaproductions caught tons more great moments.   Very very nice filming job by a master who clearly knew the show well and anticipated major moments and character moves in a smooth manner.  Not a bot though.  As far as we know.  And featuring an AIAOY– let’s just say that has to be seen to be believed.    

Some stats on the stats:  An asterisk * indicates a recurring category.  All numbers are accurate except where they are not.  I was tempted last week to resort to making crap up for this recap, but resisted the temptation.  I will occasionally add in a missing letter or two.  If a person’s train of thought is split up, I will ignore intervening commentary and put that thought back on track.  Occasionally, by design or by mischance, a comment or two will be moved slightly out of original chronological order.  Or wildly out of chronological order to cater to a theme.  Or a whim.  Only when it’s funny.  There is also no clean way to say the word “organ” which pops up a lot in this stream. (See what I mean?  It can’t be done.)

*Suggested names for this boot: The Animatronic Boot, The Better Than Cooper Boot, The It’s Alive! Boot, Robot Roll Call Boot (Okay, nobody suggested these.  It was me.  I suggested these)

*Statistician’s Favorite Boot Name:  mechanical hands down, The RaoulBot Boot

*Wow, we like to talk about Phantoms:  It has become clear to me that we like to talk about everybody.  And everything.  Phantoms, Christines, Raouls, Mandalorians.  Here are most of the people mentioned in the stream.  There is no context.  Just like a real stream!!!

John Riddle (9), Gina Beck (8), Ramin (6), Rob Houchen (2), Ethan (1), Eiji (1), Uwe (3), Jordan Craig (2), Sierra (1), Steve Barton (3), David Shannon (2), Norm (14), Earl (1), Cooper (2), Darua (4), Thiago (11), Rachel Barrell (1), Meghan Picerno (2), Cherik (19), Pedro Pascal (1), B*rbour (7), Eva Tavares (4), Ted Keegan (5), Maree Johnson (2), Quentin Oliver Lee (1), Jeremy Hays (1), Ben Jacoby (3), Andrew Keenan Bolger (1), Greg Mills (1), Michael Maliakel (1),  KKA (8),  Jordan Donica (1), Kyle Barisch (8), Andrew Ragone (3), Paul Stanley/Stankey (3), Hannah Gadsby (2)

Residual Stolle Thirst:  Residual Stolle Thirst from the stream a week prior to this one, plus Mr. Stolle’s appearance as Passarino AND the Conductor in this boot resulted in >32 mentions.  There may or may not have been comparisons between his Raoul and this boot’s Raoul.  I certainly wouldn’t put it past us.

Epithets for Ben Crawford:  Ubiquitous mentions of Crawdaddy and The Swagger.  More personalized and clearly personal epithets:  Big Ben—ktarinajones, BENBENBENBEN—whereisthepersian, OH HELLO VOICE—butdreamsofbeauty, my horny bastard and I love him—ktarinajones

Epithets:  reader’s choice as to which Phantom(s) the following apply to (no one in this stream):                                                        Fuckface McGee–therosenpants                                                      Sir Scruffsalot—snows                                                                    Voldemort—Benny-Lynne                                                                  Traschcan–therosentpants

Antici_____pation:

I can’t wait for jay                                                                                I honestly thought they’d slapped a human face on a robot and called it a day—angedelamusique

Let’s all just have fun trying to spy hints of actual emotion in Jay’s Raoul—GlassPrism

Oh there will be memes.  Ben Crawford is a walking meme and there will be a robot on stage—ktarinajones

Oh boy, here we go—GlassPrism

We love a trainwreck:

I love this stream crowd because you all show up for trainwrecks just as enthusiastically as you do for good actors—wheel-of–fish

We love a trainwreck!—butdreamsofbeauty

we’re ready—angelofthelake

trainwrecks are v satisfying—christinegrrl

We’re here with roses, we’re here with rotten fruit, we’re versatile!  A good tirefire is a marshmallow roast–snows

Debut of RaoulBot:  Before the show even began, JAJ’s Raoul had a name:                                                                                       

RaoulBot—ktarinajones at 20:01:33 (historic occasions get timestamps!)                                                                                     

wait they can’t moisten the raoul if he’s a robot, can they?—butdreamsofbeauty

they can oil him—ktarinajones

oil the raoul, perfect—butdreamsofbeauty

He has a silicone exterior—Benny-Lynne

wd-40—wheel-of-fish

How do we know he is waterproof?  Let’s see if he sparks when he hits the Raoul Hole—Aldebaran

Earliest Meme Generation:  Our intrepid memester Virg had material for a meme within 8 minutes 27 seconds of the start of the stream.

Love is in the Air:  There was a lot of love in this stream

Ali Love:  >32

Laird Love:  28

Carlotta Love:  20

Filmer Love: 5

Extreme John Riddle love: 2

when there’s video of John Riddle the filmer can have a kidney if they want—ktarinajones, seconded by christinegrrl

And then there was Jay:

Oh he did a head nod.  Well done.—Bozzleboz

At least Jay doesn’t shoot a policeman—PureAnon

Several head turns in succession there.  Getting ambitious.–Bozzleboz

Illumination!:  Auction Raoul set the tone for the evening to come, and the chandelier seized the moment to shine.

OMG, his jaw moves just like a real person….or a nutcracker—Aldebaran

His batteries are running down.  Maybe they will wire him for the new electricity.—Aldebaran

Robot Raoul is using all the electricity—Aldebaran

That chandelier isn’t rising—Ladyrock18

It’s not rising because they have to unhook the cables that power Raoulbot—DocTy

The chandelier shows more emotions than Jay as Raoul—Maze-zen

Erik made a Raouldoll to add to his collection?—Benny-Lynne

The chandelier shows the full range of human emotions.  That is why it was cast.—haunted-hideaway

The chandelier is more expressive than this Raoul—Carole

The chandelier can actually sing in morse code—DocTy

Meanwhile backstage Raoulbot is recharging in his alcove—Aldebaran

If you listen closely you can hear diesel generators in the background recharging the batteries—DocTy

C’mon guys, he’s solar powered—ktarinajones

is that why he stops working in the dark during AIAOY–christinegrrl

Statistician Aldebaran wonders if she will be able to handle viewing Cherik:

Oh I finally finished the 90’s miniseries!  I have thoughts!—Abberina

Abberina do you have thoughts other than “I hurt, I am in pain”?—snows

@snows the ending was WILD—Abberina

Abberina, I spent the whole day lying and crying after the 90s miniseries, are you allright?—Carole

“Wild”??? How are you still living!  That ending!  Gghh!—snows

Do you need something?  A glass of water?  Therapy?—Carole

My heart hasn’t recovered yet.  And I watched it 4 years ago.–Carole

Christine Who?:  One would think that Christine’s debut in Hannibal would have the streamers’ full attention.  But no.  All eyes were on Raoul in his box.  Or maybe just unpacked from the box he came in.

can it be? can it be a robot?—christinegrrl

can it be chreeeestineeee—butdreamsofbeauty

engage clapping program—Aldebaran

clap beep boop clap clap—angelofthelake

beep boop clapping action beep boop—Jadowdra

EXECUTE EMOTION—missbuster

Stache or cache?:  Once we were beginning to get an idea of the limits of Raoulbot’s programming, we turned our attention to his most character defining feature—the mustache.

omg mustache—MelancholysChild

His mustache is a little full for me.  Oh well.  I guess that’s where he hides his secrets.—haunted-hideaway

wowWWWW—put that boy in a floofy shirt and stick him in the pirates of the caribbean ride at disney, damn—snows

it’s where he hides his processer—therosenpants

haunted he needs something to cry into—ashadeintheshade

That is not a mustache, that is fiber optics—Aldebaran

although he is stiffer than the other robotic pirates—snows

Haunted, his secret is his charger entrance—Carole

You keep your secrets then, Raoul—haunted-hideaway

Autocorrect Follies:

Pinging = Piangi–Bozzleboz

Paul Stankey = Paul Stanley—IamErik771

Ironic Statement is Ironic:

I always forget there’s an elephant–yiks

Cooper finds a role:

[as Buquet appears] oh hey look it’s cooper!—snows                                                                                                                                    finally a role for cooper, buquet all the way—Aldebaran                                                                                                                                ohh wait sorry it’s the other scruffy creepy nasty weirdo—snows

*Best from Onthevirg’s Mom:  “like stolles passarino cooper should always be buquet—it’s a fitting role”

Joseph Buquet job  performance review:

DO YOUR FREAKING JOB BUQUET.  –madamefaust                                                                                                                                I’ll never get over that line “i promise i wasn’t doing my job!!!!!”—butdreamsofbeauty

The Boy Ain’t Right:  Little Lotte made it very apparent that Raoul may have been compromised.

Don’t make fun of him, you guys.  The tiny alien in his head driving his body is doing his best, ok?—haunted-hideaway

li tt le l ott e—tearoses

So….Erik’s looking like an awesome choice right about now…–HerbalPath

Usually i’m r/c  but uh not today—yiks

His hat is just an excuse he’s going to recharge a bit—Carole

That was almost threatening how he said little lotte—Ladyrock18

*Vintage MadameFaust:                                                                   Don’t quote me too much, my knowledge is based on judicious use of Wikipedia;-)

[inspired by Raoul’s Little Lotte performance]                                    CHOCOLATES 

HUMANS LOVE CHOCOLATES                                                                                                                                                                    *Biggest Organ in Paris:  The mirror scene included a thunderous organ accompaniment.  It took me ten minutes to write a non-filthy sentence that conveyed that information while containing the word “organ.”  The Saturday Streamers were fired up!  Except for a certain statistician–

WOAH—therosenpants                                                                    THAT ORGAN—PureAnon                                                                ORGAN—haunted-hideaway                                                              Wow—DocTy                                                                                      ORGAN!—butdreamsofbeauty                                                          did you hear that??????—therosenpants                                          organ—DocTy                                                                                    Orrgannnnn—Xyloghost                                                                    that roused me from Lore Olympus—therosenpants                          ORGAN!—Jawodra                                                                          What’s with the loud organ?—maze-zen                                            organ AWESOME—snows                                                                THE ORGAN WAS PERFECT—whereisthepersian                          I loved it!—MelancholysChild                                                            Is that new? that’s BADASS–snows                                                  Organ <3—Carole                                                                          The organ is loud because Ben is loud—PureAnon                          Erik is playing his pocket organ–Abberina                                        It’s the phantom of the phantom of the opera—wheel-of-fish

Oh God now I have to count Organ mentions (>20) and everyone is going to judge me—Aldebaran

*What scent are the Phantom’s candles:  Previously established in the official “Love That Lair” candle line, in addition to  Vanilla Brown Sugar, Cucumber Melon, Tobacco Spice, Underground Despair, and Hopeless Mist, the newest entry unveiled for this stream was Sepulchral Solitude, a light and airy blend of ennui, nihilism and condensation, perfect for occasional bouts of midnight composing.

*The Phantom’s pillows mentions:  2

obligatory pillow mentions, they are a nice colour scheme–missbuster

Baritone Love Fest:

we! love! a baritone! phantom!—butdreamsofbeauty

Baritones are the best!–PureAnon

Yes!—JacobZ

Yes to baritones.  To whatever they ask.—Aldebaran

baritones are incredible—angelofthelake

I like em big and boomy—Bozzleboz

yes they are—MelancholysChild

The deeper and boomier, the better—PureAnon

*Erik has Skillz:

Okay so Ben just flipped through about six alternate personalities in a single line, and that’s impressive—snows

his voice is like chocolate sauce—Benny-Lynne

His voice is so deep I wanna scuba dive in it—Benny-Lynne

The Swagger at Rest:

Sir must you spread your legs so—snows

snows yes he MUST—ashadeintheshade

nice stance—MelancholysChild

Oo.  Manspreading—Bozzleboz

but like… the good kind–snows                                                       

Sweet Music’s Throne:  Ben’s nascent aggression came out in his organ playing.  The INSTRUMENT!

OMG HIS KNEES This is really funny to me—madamefaust

He is def using his knees a lot—christinegrrl

Oh he’s….trying to play the keyboard—missbuster

He’s putting his back into that organ playing, there—haunted-hideaway

he’s definitely a more aggressive phantom I think—wheel-of-fish

A good squat workout I guess?—christinegrrl

Lift with your knees man—haunted-hideaway

The key to being an organist is all in the lumbar–Jacobz

Ben’s stance remains a source of….let’s call it concern.  Yes, concern:

He’s got good stance—ashadeintheshade

why are his legs SO far apart though—butdreamsofbeauty

because they’re so loooong—missbuster

power stance—MelancholysChild

is he riding an invisible horse?—jadowdra

And, inevitably, boner mentions: 5 (You know who you are.  Good thing, because I was watching Ben.)

The Phantom is pleased to announce:   boner mentions are ummm holding firm

Christine makes questionable choices:

oh she looked down—christinegrrl

she totally looked down and then bolted but let’s be real WHY RUN—snows

Boner-adjacent vocabulary:

Horny and variants (>17)

Lusty (2)

Organ—THE INSTRUMENT!!  (>20)

Christine does not stan a crafty Phantom:

he’s doing so well then he has to bring Barbara into it—Virg’s mom

SEE?  I MADE THIS FOR YOU?

OOPS

THAT DID NOT GO TO PLAN—haunted-hideaway

Strange Ships:  The debut of a long overdue category highlighting all the really random ships that are proposed during a given stream.

Erik/RaoulBot—haunted-hideaway

Andre/Carlotta–????

Barbara/severed Hannibal head—????

Christine/Luigi—ashadeintheshade

Barbara/new and improved sexbot from LND—Onthevirg

RaoulBot/Barbara—DocTy {streamers were split here that Barbara shouldn’t settle versus OTP}

Yes, I know, it’s a great disservice to Barbara but still, maybe they can bond over replacement parts—DocTy

Only in this streams I walk away with either a new favourite actor, a fanfic recommendation and/or a new pairing to ship—Jadowdra

*Education of the Innocent:  Several seminars were held this stream.  First,  a wide ranging and frank discussion of historically accurate ballet rats, pimping and ummm social diseases.  We segued from a dissertation on our own Madame Giry as a probable pimp to the topic of the hierarchy of French Royalty.  These topics heavily featured our resident history buffs therosenpants, angedelamusique, PureAnon and madamefaust, with varying degrees of participation in the pimping and social disease discussions.  Second, a discourse on “the catch” and variations, the catch being allowed in London and not on Broadway due to union rules.  A variant unknown to me, the “half catch” was mentioned.  Third, a sadly eye-opening (for some) discussion of the “horsey dance”:

Look, Norm was directed to do the horsey dance.  Anything is possible on Broadway.—madamefaust

sorry a HORSEY DANCE—butdreamsofbeauty

HORSEY DANCE???—onthevirg

horsey dance…??—angelofthelake

ah yes the ever classic jumping up and galloping horsey dance—madamefaust

It was more of a forceful trot during ‘Order your fine horses’ in Final Lair—madamefaust

faust you can’t just drop that in chat and not explain yikes—butdreamsofbeauty

someone link the gif—andgedelamusique

[fatefully the gif was linked]

thanks, I hate it!—butdreamsofbeauty

OH I thought that was a JOKE, that was REAL?—ashadeintheshade

oh noooo I saw that in like a compilation of funny phantoms and i thought it was a joke oh no—ashadeintheshade

The Horsey Dance claims more victims–Aldebaran

STYDI Sound effects:

[the Phantom collapses]

plorp—wheel-of-fish

plorp—MelancholysChild

Now I want to hear his palms squeak on the ground—madamefaust

I’m Jewish and I don’t approve of this level of ham Curse youuuuu—JacobZ

Prior to Il Muto the organ makes another appearance.  The INSTRUMENT!!!:

Organ boop!—Bozzleboz

Organ again.  Oh God now I said it.—Aldebaran

Aldebaran, you can’t escape the organ.  The Phantom’s organ WILL find you.—PureAnon

this Erik is so extra he took the organist’s place in the orchestra—DocTy

Il Muto Pillow Mentions:  1

Fascinating discussion about which is worse/better, bad actors or boring actors:

It’s the old argument between what’s worse bad or boring—GlassPrism

is it better to burn out or fade away—wheel-of-fish

Is it more fun to watch an Uwe or a Thiago—GlassPrism

Thiago activates my RAGE setting.—madamefaust

AIAOY is never make me watch this again:  Words cannot capture AIAOY.  Nevertheless we tried. Here are selected comments.

EXECUTEEMPATHY2.0—missbuster

Maybe there is a rat driving him by his mustache like in Ratatouille.  Raoultatouille.—missbuster

turn.her.90.degrees—Aldebaran

if she shakes him, I bet we can hear him rattle—DocTy

Raoul.exe has stopped working—christinegrrl

he bluescreened—butdreamsofbeauty

error 404—angelofthelake

can you even play Doom on this Raoul?—Jadowdra

Does he even like her?—madamefaust

He’s just staring into the abyss—angelofthelake

Why did no one tell him that wooing does not involve low-level dread—JacobZ

<10> no more talk of darkness GOTO20—snows

<20> forget these wide eyed fears GOTO30—snows

his wooing program has bugs–Aldebaran

YOU ARE NO BETTER THAN MY ARCH-ENEMY THIAGO–madamefaust

are they actually kissing?—madamefaust

now you must place your face upon her face and remain still—butdreamsofbeauty

this is depressing—virg’s lil sister

It’s more fun to suffer as a group—wheel-of-fish

Prevailing Theory:

The Phantom clearly switched Raoul with a mannequin—Maze-zen

Fondly Remembering Christian Lund during this AIAOY:  4

Fondly Remembering  “the Boop” during this AIAOY: 5

*Requests for AIAOY Kiss replay:  0

Priorities Straight:  Host Fish caller for dog pictures on her blog during the stream, resulting in the following mentions

Dogs (35, may need to be adjusted as one of Flora’s dogs is large enough to count as two), Goats (6), Cats (9), Rabbits (5), Chickens (3) Regular non-Cherik deer (1) Pig (1) Cherik deer (9)            actual human children (1)

The Masquerade, or as some wags had it due to the mannequins on the staircase, the de Chagny family reunion:

Let’s see the robot try to dance—katarinajones

dance.exe—whereisthepersian

dance.exe failed to start—phantomofthebasement

He is going as a robot to the masquerade–Aldebaran

People gonna trip over his charging cable—whereisthepersian

Relief is the wrong emotion to feel when the Red Death arrives:

Why at a costume party is everyone afraid of a costumed man?  How do they know to be scared?  Do they hear the background music?—JacobZ

It’s his authoritative stance—madamefaust

Christine’s reaction maybe?—ktarinajones

I think they’re afraid he’s going to drop another chandelier on them.  Which, valid.—madamefaust

They saw the bead work.  They know who it is.—haunted-hideaway

*Sad comment is sad:  commenting on the ornate bow on the score for Don Juan Triumphant

He wraps it up like the present he never received.—haunted-hideaway

*Fathering Gaze lyric: 1

*That staff tho:    

“I’m going to a graveyard.  I should take my shooty stick with the skull on it!”—haunted-hideaway

We passed the Point of No Return long ago.  From the auction, in fact:

his accent, lol–ashadeintheshade 

Accent—Bozzleboz

itsa me…—Aldebaran

ITSA HIM—madamefaust

I hate you all—wheel-of-fish

And Ben plays videogames backstage.  His inspiration is literally Super Mario.—madamefaust

That was some nice cup stroking—GlassPrism                   

The Raoul Hole holds no dangers for Raoulbot:

Oh no he’s going to rust and shut down in the lake—wheel-of-fish

They spray him down and moisten him before he jumps in, otherwise he’ll just float on top—haunted-hideaway

Raoul’s wifi is down once more:

Is the boat stuck?  Oh, there it goes—madamefaust

The radio signals running Raoul confused the boat—Aldebaran

The organ makes a return in Down Once More:  The INSTRUMENT!!!!:  2

Veil Fluff Mentions: 2

he didn’t fluff the veil—ashadeintheshade

I like the veil fluff–ashadeintheshade

Veil Yeet Mentions: 11

The Kiss.  An actual human kiss, unlike AIAOY:

ohhh he bends into the kiss—Aldebaran

Aw he’s TRYING to figure out how to kiss—Flora-Gray

He done touched a lady.—haunted-hideaway

That was a good kiss—Abberina

Bozzleboz breaks me, as the Phantom approaches hanging Raoul with a candle:

I burn him now, yes?–Bozzleboz

The Phantom breaks us:

oh god.  He just broke me.—Bozzleboz

ohhhh poor angel—Aldebaran

aw erik :(–angeloflake

he’s so resigned:(–Benny-Lynne

we love an exhausted depressed sewer man—butdreamsofbeauty

This Phantom survives just so he can go disassemble Raoul—Aldebaran

Looks Like We Made It:

Time to go plug Raoulbot in for the night—angelofthelake

Performance Comparisons for Raoul/Career Suggestions for Raoul, You Decide:

Nutcracker—Aldebaran

Mannequin Bride—coroaline

Tin Man—christinegrrl, yiks

Edward Scissorhands—GlassPrism

Calculon from Futurama—IamErik771

C3PO—wheel-of-fish

Automaton—ktarinajones

Dalek–missbuster

Cardboard Cutout—haunted-hideaway

Hat Stand–Bozzleboz

*Things I wish I had said:            

Christine in Final Lair:  She has to go put Raoul in a bag of rice but she’ll be back—Benny-Lynne

*Statistician Aldebaran’s two favorite personal quotes:  

little known fact, the red scarf is actually a fanbelt from Raoulbot

19 years on the score, 1 year on the bow

Phew!  See you shortly with the By the Numbers of Moscow from LAST week!!!  Aldebaran

[ballet-symphonie]

General Ballet Asks

Hi there! I'd like to know your opinion as a professional dancer on fouetté. I think as much as it's incredible to watch and must be a wonderful achievement to dancers, it's overused and sometimes not necessary for certain ballets... hope you're having a wonderful day! :)

@asouthernprincessupnorth

I really don’t have any complaints? Like yes, they're everyone and they have become a standard party trick for dancers to churn out. While I don’t think they’re always necessary I don’t believe they are a big issue as some balletomanes make of them. Like I think ballet would be fine without them but I also think they’re fine as it is. 

For example, I would be totally fine if they were scratched in le Corsair GPD3 ( it doesn’t have quite the same impact in the middle of the ballet) But the counterarguments is that the GPDDs in classical ballets are nearly always divertissements. The coda especially, exists to be separate from the plot. It is literally an opportunity for the dancers to display their bravura. There is an understanding that this the case by the audience and that the fouettés are not really supposed to be adding any narrative value (notable exceptions excluded). 

But at the same time fouetté’s happen to be one of my  favorite steps and I think they can definitely be  a wow factor when use correctly.  Also like they last about a minute of a 2hr plus ballet…In my mind, there’s much bigger fish to fry:

It’s also interesting to look at old archival performances and note what choreography has been changed. Often  times…fouettés have been added in modern times. Talisman is the  first one that comes to mind. The same applies with male variations

Most have been rechoreographed  for pirouettes en dehors and basically all  the jumps have been changed again and again to suit individuals …Talk about overused choreography.  That being said, I am very much team “don’t cast a girl who can’t do fouettés for SL”

TLDR: I’m not very bothered by fouetté’s presence but think there is an argument for both sides. It also does not seem to be an important issue in the grand scheme of ballet

Hi there! Are the methods taught in Vaganova different from the Bolshoi School? I'm also curious as to your dream role. Thank you!

Yes, the schools are different. Different  founders and different methodology and  pedagogy resulting in different priorities for their graduates. I could write a book on the topic but I’ll keep it brief. 

Moscow  (BBA) tends to place grater emphasis  on stage presence, personality , power and explosiveness. A lot fo that is essential for the absolutely gargantuan size  of the BT stage. 

The Vaganova school, emphasizes lyricism, clarity of movement, epaulment and fluidity. It’s technique at  its  highest purity. 

 And as far as my dream role, I would say Kitri (Don Quixote)  and Nikiya (La Bayadere). I have danced the  DQ PDD for competitions and galas but not the full length…maybe one day I’ll have a chance :)

I've been watching few Russian ballet interviews lately and they mention something that is translated into "ballet data", like some dancers have good ballet data or other have little to none. What do they mean by that?

Without a link and the specific context it is difficult to be exactly sure but I would guess that they are referring to a dancer’s ‘facility’  or ‘physicality’, essentially a good body for ballet and has  come combination of the  following: slim frame, long limbs, short torso proportionally, flexible hips, legs and back, nicely arched feet, hyperextension,  small head and long neck

And of course ending with a massive disclaimer that Russian is my 3rd language, I am not a native speaker. 

Have you watched Don Q the royal ballet uploaded recently?

I recently watched it with my boyfriend. He is a musician  but he had never watched  DQ before…only played it in the pit. While I am greatly inspired by both Nunez and  Acosta (such a splendid pair) I am not a fan of some of Acosta’s choreographic choices and music cuts and insertions. However, the filming is pretty decent which is a necessity when watching with a person who  doesn’t know ballet well.

[tripsonflatground]

Is it just me, or is it kinda capitalist that in order to get new superheroes, people kill off or age up the old ones and then put the new heroes in the same role/identity? Like, they killed Peter Parker to have Miles Morales. Bucky Barnes and Falcon/Sam Wilson both became Captain America after the death or age & retirement of Steve Rogers, depending on whether you’re looking at the comics or the MCU. Batman goes through Robins and Batgirls like it’s going out of style (and seriously, why does Dick Grayson let other people be Robin? That was a personal nickname from his birth family, right? Why would he give something so intimate away?). Replacing someone else and living up to their legacy rather than making your own path was a whole plot point/theme in Spider-man: Far From Home!

There are exceptions to this, like X-23 and Wolverine, who have managed to have some form of a father-daughter relationship in the comics (although, if memory serves, I believe he’s been killed in recent comics and she replaced him as Wolverine - though I haven’t read anything recent, so I might be wrong, and in the film Logan they killed him off). And things like Conner/Superboy from Young Justice being created with the idea to replace Superman doesn’t count in the same way because it was a villainous plot and Con didn’t end up following through. And there’s a new Ms. Marvel now that Carol Danvers is Captain Marvel, which is a much better alternative considering that Carol wasn’t using that identity anymore.

The idea I’m trying to get at, if it isn’t clear, is that the costume identity, AKA Spider-man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, etc. seems to me the thing that’s given value while the person behind the mask is more recently being treated as expendable/dispensable. Which doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, because the person created the mask, and so much of themselves and who they are and what their goals are drove the reasons behind the creation of the identity and the way they behave in that identity. It’s like being a kid and trying on your parents’ clothes or getting hand-me-downs, even if it fits, you didn’t exactly choose it, and you look different wearing it. And I’m calling this capitalist because it feels like capitalism. If we equate being a superhero to a job, which in many ways it really is, especially if you are employed by an organization to do it like SHIELD, then the value is being placed on the role/job, and not with the labor. Capitalism doesn’t give a shit who’s doing the job and how they’re being treated as long as it’s getting done. Employees in the service/retail industry get treated like shit and don’t get paid enough but that will never change unless people have other options and aren’t desperate enough to accept those conditions and get something better. Recently, with the deaths and/or replacements of superheroes in order to have someone else fill the identity in comics and films, the individuals behind the mask, who are the real source of emotional connection and relatability, not the mask, seem to have become dispensable in the eyes of the creators.

And I do get that it’s a shortcut and an attempt to bring in new audiences by putting more modern characters into recognizable roles. But why does the original character have to *die*?

Yeah, superhero-ism is a dangerous occupation, sure, but doesn’t death seem like the most extreme option? It’s not as if there aren’t other possibilities:

1.Having characters be located somewhere else other than New York City or its fictional equivalent (Metropolis, Gotham, etc). There are other major cities in the US where crime happens, let alone other cities in the world. Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, Dallas, Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, Philadelphia. Who doesn’t want to imagine a Spider-man or a Batman with a Boston accent? Wouldn’t it be a cool storyline if other Kryptonians not related to Superman escaped Krypton and eventually made it to Earth and moved to different cities and took up mantles and eventually the Kryptonian race could start rebuilding on Earth? Talk about a really interesting and positive way to show a diasporic community. And also, it doesn’t make any sense statistically that the majority of the world’s superheroes are in the US. Put some in Toronto, Paris, London, Cairo, Sydney, Tokyo, Beijing, Moscow, Rome, Athens, Rio, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Seoul, Istanbul, etc. If the Olympics happen there, then there’s probably a lot of people that need saving and crime happening. It’s especially dumb with the alien invasion stories where they show the audience aliens popping up in places other than NYC and suddenly the heroes have to get other there, like unless you got super-speed or teleportation, it’s going to take a while, and how are you even going to communicate with the civilians if there’s a language barrier?

2.Having characters be from other dimensions. Marvel and DC have a history of playing with alternate timelines and multi-verse theory. Into The Spiderverse was a super-popular movie that inspired tons of people to make their own Spidersonas, and the lesson that can be taken from it is that you can take a character and make it still feel unique or individualistic even if you’re using similar themes. Maybe instead of the dimensions having evil versions they have to fight or being fucked up in some other way, make the new version of Wonder Woman or Iron Man or whatever be from an alternate dimension and end up in the main because of science/magic, or a dimension-hopping villain they’re fighting, or an accident, or to get help from other versions of themselves, or even escaping from an apocalypse/doomsday from their own universe. It’s so easy to either send them back to their own universe when you decide you’re done playing with them or keep them around if you want them permanently. Wouldn’t it be fascinating if the Captain America we’re familiar with met a Captain America from an alternate universe where he fought in the American Revolution or for the Union in the Civil War or even in WW1 or Vietnam?

3.Having female characters take on feminine versions of the identity, or vice versa, or non-binary characters find a way to have a gender-neutral version. This has been done with Hulk and She-Hulk, Superman and Supergirl, Captain Marvel and Ms. Marvel back when Captain Marvel was a dude, Spider-man’s daughter May was Spider-girl at one point, Batman’s cousin or something is Batwoman. There’s also been some adjacents, such as AntMan and Wasp or Wolverine and X-23. There are definitely ways that you can use a familiar identity to put more female and non-binary superheroes out there. I mean, military titles (the Captains) or even names like Black Panther, Green Lantern, and Flash aren’t even gendered. You can feminize names if you want to, but I’m pretty sure the female Hawkeye is just straight-up Hawkeye. People like Thor I feel differently about because Thor’s an actual mythological character, not something Marvel came up with, but you could just use a different Norse god/goddess? And yeah, Dr. Strange is the man’s actual name so that’s also a little different, but if he had a daughter or a non-binary child who also got their doctorate, they are in fact entitled to call themselves Dr. Strange rather than something lesser. Not to mention, that whole alternate universe versions point I just made? Yeah, these can be characters from gender-bent alternate universes or a universe where humans are androgynous or something.

4.Have multiple characters use the same secret identity. This would be the perfect concept for twins or friends with the same build. The bank’s been robbed but A is on a date? B can totally show up at the scene! B got really hurt in their last fight? A’s got them covered. There’s a bit of risk to it, like if people recognize they have different voices or someone notices them at two different crises happening at the same time, but that’s just what makes the challenge of pretending to be the same person interesting. And it could get even more complex if you had triplets doing it, or four college roommates, or whatever. It’s also a great excuse to be able to write deep interpersonal relationships and identity struggles. Hell, can you imagine how much scarier multiple Batmans would be? They could play even more on the “you never know where he’s going to be next or what shadow he could be hiding in” thing, like, just when the crook thinks he’s lost Batman, another comes out out of nowhere.

And if superhero writers don’t want to do any of this, there’s also the C-List and D-List heroes that maybe got introduced in like the 70′s or 80′s or whatever but didn’t take or ended up being a blip in another character’s backstory. If you want more modern superheros connected to the major ones so you can use them in the same stories, it is totally valid IMO to try revitalizing these obscure concepts. I have a vested interest in seeing if Monica Rambeau shows up as her hero identity Photon in the Captain Marvel sequel. This idea is still using what you have, but it doesn’t capitalize the lives of the characters you have or make them expendable in any way. In fact, it’s also kind of like recycling, or the opposite of capitalism, because you’re trying to use alternative resources or all of your resources instead of very specific ones to the point of over-saturation.

Look, I’m just very tired of superheroes getting killed off to be replaced by someone else using the same identity or because it’s edgy or dark or whatever. Even a debilitating injury that leaves them in a wheelchair or blind or deaf is a hell of a lot more interesting. Once a character’s dead, they’re dead, there’s nowhere else you can take them unless you bring them back to life  (which admittedly happens a lot in superhero universe) or have them hang around as a ghost or something. It’s boring, it doesn’t give the audience any closure and just messes with their emotions for shock value, and it promotes toxic capitalism.

[yurionice-secretsanta]

To  @cruria  From  @cadencekismet

let me count the ways – / or shrink to a phrase like an epitaph

title from “The Love Poem” by Carol Ann Duffy

 Yuuri couldn’t take his eyes off of the ghost hound. She had appeared nearly a week ago, lurking around his family’s inn. Vicchan had been one thing. He had been so small. Yuuri used to carry him in his arms. This one looked almost as big as Makkachin.

 Even now he couldn’t take his eyes off of her where she sat beside him.

 Christophe answered his call. “Yuuri.” As always, the man purred his name like he was trying to lure Yuuri to bed.

 Yuuri smiled. “Christophe. I- I thought maybe you might know something about ghost hounds? Mine got-” It was still difficult to talk about Vicchan. “He was run over by a carriage near midwinter last year” – during their competition – “but there’s a new ghost hound here who’s been following me around since I came home. I’ve never had a strange hound be so friendly.” Yuuri tilted the flat disc of magic he held between his palms so Chris could see the spectral beast beside him.

 “I- Yuuri, that’s Makkachin.” Chris slumped. “Thank goodness. Viktor’s with you?”

 Yuuri snorted. “Don’t be absurd, Chris. Why would Viktor be here? And Makkachin never leaves Viktor’s side. She’s famous for it.” The hound bounced up and placed her paws on the roll of fat just above Yuuri’s hips when he said the name. She was heavier than Vicchan, even like this.

 Yuuri looked back at Christophe. “Viktor is missing?”

 Now that he was looking, he could see the stress lines on the other man’s forehead and around his mouth.

 “People are looking for him, right?”

 Chris pressed his lips together. “He’s Viktor.” And then, “He disappeared last week. I’m staying in his apartment and watching Yuri while Yakov and Lilia look for him, but. They haven’t gotten much.” There were always jealousies directed towards those on top. If someone didn’t find him soon, Viktor could slide away forever.

 Yuuri nodded to himself. “I’ll be there tomorrow. Where’s the nearest materialization point? Makkachin will track him better from there. I assume there are relics of him in the apartment?”

 Lilia was a strong witch. If she didn’t have a trail after a week, Viktor couldn’t want to be found. He’d sent his ghost hound away. He hadn’t told anyone that he was leaving.

  Outside, snow began to cover the pink blossoms on the trees. Yuuri packed his bags quickly. He would borrow a horse in Petersburg, if he and Makkachin picked up a trail. (They had to pick up a trail.)  Yuuri’s magic was inconsistent – anxiety made him doubt himself, and that weakened the spells – but he was better at finding magics than the fiddly artsy spells they used in competition, and he had the stamina to keep the pointing spells up even while he was asleep. He never wasted time travelling in the wrong direction after something.

 He had been thinking of retirement since Midwinter. He could become a guide for the guests at his parents’ inn, and he could quietly fade out of sight. The final few moons of his apprenticeship hadn’t suggested anything different, but he’d been planning to press on anyway. He hated to fail in front of the crowd, but he loved to prove his mastery in front of them. It was ironic that this was how he didn’t go back.

  All the Masters looking for apprentices would be booked after next week’s fair. But Viktor had inspired years of magic in Yuuri. It was only fair that Yuuri seize this chance to pay him back while he could.

 Painting competitions were beautiful. Yuuri was nine when he fell in love. He loved to observe the ways different Painters worked with their elements in different ways. His friend Phichit was a water witch like Viktor. Phichit’s Painting burbled in waves and waterfalls in the air. Yuuri worked in earth. He Painted dreamy pictures in earthy tones out of the dust and mud and rock dust in the area. On the other hand, Otabek, new to the senior division, had eschewed the traditional subtlety of earth witches and opted for bolder strokes. Yuuri could cover the entrance to the arena with unbroken wall and no one would know that it was there. Otabek could erase himself, or the ground you stood on. He could Paint something deep underground and Paint a hole so you could see it.

 Chris and Yuri’s fellow apprentice Mila were fire witches, but while you could warm yourself at Mila’s Painting, Chris’s was designed to draw viewers in like moths. Young Yuri Plisetsky created amazing fire illusions, the sort that would scorch anyone who tried to get too close. Air witches were the rarest. Well done, Painting with air magic was unparalleled, but many air witches were unimaginative. Sara and Mickey, twins on the circuit, were both air witches, but while Sara could spin delicate mirages and even Paint scents into her Paintings, Mickey’s Paintings were all vortexes designed to “chase off the boys. They’re like hyenas going after Sara.”

 Viktor worked in the most delicate of ice crystals. The first time Yuuri had huddled around the viewing ball and watched Viktor Paint the arena, he’d known that this was the only thing he wanted to do. Viktor had been breathtaking. Yuuri had spent years hoping to someday meet the other man as his equal. Instead, of course, he had gotten the news about Vicchan in the middle of the competition and crashed and burned so shamefully he thought he might never get over it.

  There was a squawk from Yuuri’s left as he stepped through the portal from the materialization point into Viktor’s home. Makkachin bounded in beside him. He turned, already panicking. He didn’t know why he’d thought any of this would be easy. Sure enough, there stood the Russian Yuri, arms crossed over his chest and a scowl on his face. A pale, semi-translucent dragon slumped on his shoulders, half hidden behind the curtain of hair. The boy turned to Christophe and snarled.

 “This is who you thought could help?” He flapped a hand at Yuuri dismissively. “He can’t even Paint a simple picture without fading half of it so you can barely see it. He can’t even do the top of his Painting without falling out of the air and smudging it.”

  Yuri Plisetsky was an autodidact. He’d been discovered in some backwater of Moscow, Painting graffiti over building facades. His grandfather was friends with Yakov, so rumor went, and got him an audience, but everyone who saw the boy Paint knew he’d earned the apprenticeship himself. He’d started young, too. People called him The Punk, although his signature on pieces was always Dragon. He had found Yuuri trying to hide by the latrines after the Midwinter games. Had snarled at him to retire and become a hedgewitch, since that was clearly all he was good for. One Yuri was enough, and Yuuri needn’t stick around any longer to sully their name.

 Yuri ought to be glad that Yuuri would have no choice but to retire now.

  Yuuri sighed and answered for Chris. “Makkachin came to me. And I may sometimes miss the technical points in Painting, but I grew up Tracking. If anyone can find him, I can.”

 Yuri sized him up. “Take me with you. You might need… I know him. You need me or Chris.”

 Yuuri glanced at Chris, who smiled and shook his head ever so slightly. “You’d kill to blend your colors half as well as Yuuri, or place the accents as skillfully. And Lilia said to keep you here. If she comes back and you and I aren’t both here she’ll eat me alive. We’re staying. I don’t think Yuuri will have any trouble bringing Viktor back if he finds him.”

 Yuuri glanced at Makkachin. He wished he had half of Chris’s confidence.

 Yuri was still watching him, his green eyes sharp. He stepped into Yuuri’s personal space. In spite of that, his voice was loud when he spoke. “Look, if you’re going alone, there are things you need to know. He left you the dumb mutt, so he wasn’t planning to come back.” He glanced around the room. “I don’t think anyone kidnapped him. I think the idiot kidnapped himself.” Yuuri hadn’t even considered a kidnapping. It was just possible that someone might get the jump on Viktor so thoroughly that he couldn’t Paint himself an escape route in a week or that someone might manage to separate him from Makkachin. Not both.

  He trudged through the dark and the grey. He had let his horse loose outside the city, to help throw Yakov off his trail. For the rest, he used mirrored ice crystals. They would hide him from anyone looking. The snow smoothed over behind him. He didn’t know where he was going except away. (After- but after it wouldn’t matter who found him.) Already, the ice crystals were sinking into his skin. It glittered when he moved his hand, the only way he could tell it was there. After he turned to ice he would thaw. Uncontrolled, he would melt away. The only trace left to find would be his coat and scarf on the snow.

 When he was young, Viktor had met a hedgewitch and he had bartered away his happiness for glory. He’d thought the trade a bargain. With glory would come triumph, and what was triumph but joy? It turned out that glory was nothing but grey without his happiness. Since Midwinter, even the grey was leaching out of his world, until Viktor had decided that if the world was going to fade snow-white, he would fade with it. (There were cursebreakers who could help. They would teach you how to fool the curse and to Paint the world for yourself. Viktor was too tired to fight. Fading seemed easier.)

  Yuuri left early the following morning on a shaggy bay pony. A rangy chestnut trailed along behind for Viktor when they found him. Makkachin bounced ahead. Yuuri dismounted at the city limits and dug in his pocket for the relic he and Chris had chosen.

 He was just tying Viktor’s hair back to the comb, now tightly braided in its single strands, when there was noise behind them. Makkachin bounded over to the newcomers.

 Yuuri pretended not to notice them until he finished tying it off and tapped the comb to the earth. There Viktor was, half a week’s ride ahead. He kept that connection as he turned to the teenagers.

 “Yuri, Otabek.”

 Yuri’s chin jutted out. “We’re coming. Otabek can hide us, and Potya will keep us warm at night.”

 The connection to Viktor wavered and Yuuri scowled and concentrated until it steadied again.

 Yuri waited impatiently. “Lilia has been teaching me to draw scents.” Only air witches could work in scent. Yuuri couldn’t think of a single reason why Yuri would pretend to be a fire witch when he wasn’t. Yuri sneered at him like he knew what Yuuri was thinking. Yuuri decided that he was just happy to have left fifteen far behind him.

 Yuuri would travel faster without them, but if he sent them back now there was no way Yuri would return. Maybe he would need Yuri to help convince Viktor to return. They clearly knew each other.

 Yuuri sighed. “Did you bring horses?”

 Otabek smiled. “They’re even our horses.”

 Yuri turned to his friend with a scowl and Yuuri laughed.

  Although Yuuri was the only one who knew where they were going he let Makkachin lead them and took up the rear. Otabek didn’t seem put off by Yuri’s antagonism. Instead, they rode in a companionable silence so practiced and comfortable that it expanded to include Yuuri. He was shocked to find out that they had just met.

 “Otabek’s Master has been helping me while Yakov is off looking for Viktor.” Yuri scowled and ducked his head so that his bangs curtained his eyes. Yuuri wondered if there was a reason so many of Yakov’s students used the trick.

 Potya spent most of the day perched on Yuri’s shoulders. She would huddle under his loose hair, more visible in the lump she created there than when she flew beside him like an ice crystal against the snow.

  All of them protested when Yuuri called a halt for the night, even Makkachin, who strained to look into the wind for a long minute before circling back around to sulk at the base of the cliff by the horses. Yuuri crossed his arms against Yuri and Potya’s matching belligerent stares and Otabek’s frown.

 “The horses need rest and so do we. This is the first point where we’ve had any real protection from the wind in hours.”

 Yuri’s fists clenched and unclenched. “And Viktor? What if he doesn’t have shelter?”

 Yuuri couldn’t think about that. “He’s a good three day ride away. Riding on wouldn’t get us there any sooner.”

  He moved slower as the ice sank in. His limbs creaked if he tried to step too far. His breath puffed out in little snow showers from his mouth. His stomach growled. The ice still hadn’t sunk very far. Maybe his lips were solid ice now but his teeth were cold and chattering from the ice in front of them. He just wanted to sleep.

  Yuuri noticed it near the beginning of the third day riding (he prayed to any gods listening that they would catch up to Viktor, if not tomorrow then the day after. The other Painter was moving much too slowly. Yuuri was worried sick about him) Otabek turned to ask Yuri a question and just caught him as he lurched half out of his saddle.

 Yuuri trotted up on his other side, even as Yuri batted his friend away. “I told you last night Otabek. I’m fine!”

 “So fine you nearly fell off your horse?” Otabek looked unimpressed.

 Yuuri frowned at their youngest companion. He looked exhausted. “What have you been doing?”

 Yuri snarled. There were tears in his eyes (he was clearly exhausted. Yuuri kicked himself inwardly for not noticing earlier). “I’m hiding our scent. Someone keeps trying to draw it. I’m fine.”

 Yuuri couldn’t think of any air witches with any business following them. “You’ve tied it away and they’re still drawing it?”

  It took nearly twenty minutes of Yuuri digging up half-forgotten descriptions Minako had given him of the method she used to stop people following her before Yuri managed it. Privately, Yuuri resolved to buy Minako some good vodka before he returned home.

 By nightfall Yuri had needed to retie their scent three times.

 Yuuri scowled back into the night. “Who would be following us? Lilia is a water witch, right?” Everyone knew Lilia Baranovskaya was a water witch. Yakov and Georgi were fire witches.

 Yuri shrugged sullenly. “The hag’s probably got her girlfriend trying to find us.” He sat against a tree and hid a yawn.

 Yuuri had a terrible thought. “Did you stay up all night last night Yuri?”

 Yuri didn’t bother answering.

 Otabek met Yuuri’s gaze and winced.

 Yuuri sighed. “And who’s the hag?”

 Otabek answered for his friend. “Mila Babicheva. Her girlfriend is Sara Crispino.”

 Yuuri hesitated. “And will they try to stop you from coming to bring Viktor home, Yuri?”

 The boy shrugged. “I don’t want to play probability with Viktor’s life if you don’t mind.”

 Yuuri sighed. “Well I’m not taking any risks with your life either. Either you sleep tonight or I’ll leave you here in the morning for them to find. I won’t have you falling off your horse.”

 He hoped it wasn’t obvious what an empty threat it was. Yuri scowled.

 “Stupid old man, dragging us all out here and making us worry. When we find him I’m going to tell him exactly what I think of him.”

 “He’s disappeared himself into a blizzard already. Don’t you think he’s been punished enough?”

 “No,” Yuri snapped, and turned over so his back was to Yuuri and Otabek. In minutes, he was asleep.

  Yuuri woke to a string of angry Russian curses. There was a portal closing on the ashes of their fire. Yuuri was on his feet and between the newcomers and Yuri and Otabek before he recognized them. He relaxed slightly.

 “Do you know how dangerous it is to walk through an unbraced portal?” He frowned at Mila and Sara. “I don’t suppose you at least had someone else open it at the other end?” The remains of their portal sparked at the edges as the fire caught it and burned it away. Yuuri suppressed a sigh. A balanced portal – even a one-sided one – wouldn’t burn like that.

 Sara flushed and reached to remove the oxygen from their fire before it burned through the portal and started a fire wherever they had been. Yuri tsked and closed a fist over their portal. It disappeared.

 He scowled at Yuuri. “If you hadn’t made me go to sleep this would never have happened.”

 Yuuri sighed. “Are you going to try to take him back?” He moved so he was still between Yuri and Mila. “I don’t really know Viktor. If he sent Makkachin away I might need someone else who knows him better than I do to get him back.”

 Mila shook her head. “Of course not. We’re coming too.” She frowned at Yuri. “He’s my fellow apprentice too.”

 Yuri had the grace to look ashamed.

 “What about horses?” Otabek spoke for the first time. “We didn’t bring spares.” He glanced at the chestnut Yuuri had brought for Viktor.

 Sara smiled. “That’s what I’m here for. Well, aside from drawing your scent for tracking.” She raised her hands and twisted. Two strands of wind detached themselves and knotted into horse shapes, visible only because of the powdery snow. One of them snorted, sounding like the wind whipping around the eaves of a house at night. Yuuri looked at the Russian boy. He had turned to saddle up his own horse. Yuuri shrugged and turned to his own horse.

  Having Mila and Sara along changed the dynamic of the day’s ride. While Yuri and Otabek had mostly ridden in silence or amused themselves, Mila and Sara liked to talk. They teased Yuri, who yelled at them without looking very angry. Otabek and Yuuri mostly stayed out of it.

 “It was very thoughtful of you to come help Yuuri find Viktor, Yuri.”

 “Shut up, Baba! Like I was going to wait months for Yakov to get tired of looking and come back. It just made sense to go with Katsuki and Makkachin.”

 “You care about Viktor.”

 “What?! That old geezer?” Yuri squawked.

 “I think it’s nice that you care for your fellow apprentices,” Otabek said mildly.

 Yuri’s wordless vocalizations died while he tried to figure out whether Otabek was making fun.

 Mila turned to Yuuri with a wicked grin. “And what about you, lover boy?”

 Yuuri flushed. It wasn’t like it was any sort of guilty reaction. He just flushed easily. It was probably being addressed by these two strange and self-assured witches. They were both excellent Painters, and…

 “It wasn’t very kind of you to drop off the face of the earth after last Midwinter. No one knew where you’d gone, you weren’t at any competitions…” She looked serious.

 “I wasn’t qualified for any competitions,” Yuuri snapped. “I don’t suppose you’d have noticed, but I sort of crashed and burned.”

 “Oh,” Sara smirked. “We noticed. You didn’t seem to mind at the Midwinter banquet though.” Sara hadn’t seemed the sort to be cruel on purpose.

 Yuuri sighed and buried his face in his hands. His bay horse plodded on. He lifted his head. “It’s not an excuse, but my hound had just died. I-”

 The trail to Viktor shivered and thinned. Yuuri broke off and fumbled in his saddlebag for the comb, dropping to the ground and tapping it against the ground three times. The connection steadied, but when he picked it up again two of the white blond hairs were nothing but frost. Yuuri felt a shiver run up his spine.

 He still thought that they would make it to Viktor by nightfall, but he’d never had a tracking trail threaten to disappear that way before. He considered the hairs. Two of the three braids were still fine. He careful untangled the third and turned to Mila.

 “I’m going to try to do a binding spell. I don’t know what he’s doing, but I’m not sure he’ll still be there when we get there otherwise. One of you hold Makkachin still so I can pluck some hairs?”

 “Don’t you think it would be stronger with hair from a person Viktor likes?” Yuri was frowning at him like Yuuri was doing something inexplicable.

 Yuuri hesitated. “I didn’t… You or Mila?”

 Mila and Sara giggled. Even steady Otabek was hiding a smirk. Yuri was exasperated. “I was talking about you, dummy.”

 “I…” Yuuri stared. “Viktor probably doesn’t even know my name.”

 Both of Yakov’s apprentices dropped their heads into their hands. Sara threw her hands in the air and nearly lost control of her wind horses.

 Otabek looked at Yuuri, his voice mild. “He sent Makkachin to you. Midwinter may have just been drowning your sorrow in the nearest pretty face for you, but I feel certain it was more than that for Viktor.”

 Yuuri stared at him.

 Sara got her horses under control. Mila let go of the mane of her horse.

 Yuuri swallowed. “Sorry. I think… I must be missing.” He took a slow breath. “What did I do while I was drunk last Midwinter?”

 Yuri lifted his face to stare at him accusingly. “You don’t remember? What are you even doing here if you don’t- tch!” He kicked his horse into a trot. “I’m going to find Viktor.”

 Yuuri glanced at the rest of them and then trotted after Yuri.

  Yuuri managed to tie the braid of his own hair around the frosty braid of Viktor’s. It wasn’t easy on a trotting horse, but he didn’t want to ask Yuri to slow down. The sooner they were there, the better. He wasn’t even sure that the charm he’d added would do anything. He spurred the horse faster.

  The ice was getting thicker. Soon, he wouldn’t be able to move at all. That was ok though. He was getting numb. It was getting harder to think. Soon, the ice would be so thick that he would freeze solid and then melt with the thaw and run off in rivulets into the river. He hoped it might be peaceful. The lazy stagnant summer river looked peaceful enough. Suddenly, the ice stopped thickening. He would have blinked if his eyelids hadn’t frozen days ago. It was almost more effort than he could contemplate to start the freezing again. The ice began again, more slowly than before.

  They almost rode right past him. Yuri was leading the group at a brisk trot and Yuuri was preoccupied with his galloping fears. Whatever he had done dead-drunk at Midwinter must have been embarrassing and awful, but that offered his panicked mind a wide range of possibilities. Anything seemed plausible. Had he offered to beat Chris at Painting the way he was rumored to Paint when alone – with a different limb in use as the brush – or latched onto Viktor Nikiforov and sobbed over Vicchan without exchanging a word with the near-stranger? Either seemed as likely as anything else.

 The thread leading to Viktor had not firmed as they approached. Instead, and contrary to any usual rules, it had continued to thin and flicker all day. The funk Yuuri was in hadn’t helped, and he blamed his emotional weakness (couldn’t even hold himself together to save Viktor! Pathetic) until the evening light bouced strangely through the ice in a snow drift, throwing a thin arc of a rainbow off an odd angle. Yuuri looked more carefully, then halted to stare.

 Yuri turned and opened his mouth to yell at Yuuri for stopping before he realized what they were seeing. He went white.

 “How do we- Can he be reversed?”

 Yuuri dismounted, dazed. He wished for another water witch. Phichit would have come if Yuuri had thought to ask. He hadn’t even considered that they might need to unravel whatever Viktor had done to avoid being found. Would a water witch have any more idea how to stop this or undo it? Was it even possible?

 Yuuri fisted his gloved hand around the reins until he could feel the edges of the cheap leather through the sturdy glove. Then he grabbed the fingers of the right hand glove in his mouth and pulled it off, letting it drop in the snow.

 Could they even figure out what Viktor had done?

 Yuuri could still feel the flickering connection to the ice sculpture that had been Viktor. He pulled his reins over the pony’s head to hold him where they dropped and stepped forward across the snow.

 Makkachin, whined and lurked near the wind horses Sara and Mila rode.

 Mila’s voice shook. “I’ll call Yakov. We can bring him home and thaw him out.”

 “Idiot.” Yuri was scathing but Yuuri could hear the fear in his voice. “He’s ice. Who’s to say that if you melt him he turns to anything but a puddle of water on Yakov’s carpet.”

 Mila’s voice was sharp, the way Mari’s had gone when Yuuri tracked a customer of their inn right into a blizzard, though Yuuri couldn’t say which fellow apprentice she was that close to. Maybe both.

 “And what would you recommend, if you’re so smart?”

 Yuuri took the last step towards Viktor. He unthreaded the hair from the comb – Viktor’s hair, Yuuri’s, the frost, all of it – and lifted his hand, following the pull of that invisible tracking thread.

  There had been a time he’d run into Viktor in the hallway of an inn at a Painting competition. Viktor was always kind to his competitors. He’d asked Yuuri about his technique and the dreamy way that his Painting that day had come out.

 Chris told stories sometimes – not to Yuuri, exactly, but near Yuuri, as if he knew Yuuri was interested and too shy to ask – about his friendship with Viktor. The way they dared each other to try new foods wherever they went, but Viktor had never let on if there were any he wasn’t delighted by, the impish pleasure he seemed to get out of teasing Chris and Yuri and Yakov.

 Yuuri had watched Viktor one day, bright and smiling and dangerous as he crushed JJ, a fellow water witch, with his flat cheerful disregard.

  Yuuri caught Viktor’s icy hand in his own bare one, linking their fingers and clasping the thin braids between them. Bodies were of the earth. He breathed gingerly, as if it could shatter Viktor to breathe with insufficient care, and thought of everything he knew of the man. The man, not the legend.

  Ice prince, they called him. He felt a hot line across his palm, and then someone took him by the hand, the way his mothers used to when he was small. They drew him back, and Viktor felt the hard shell of ice on him thin, then crack away.

  Yuuri didn’t dare to look at Viktor or the others, afraid. Instead, he concentrated on the little he knew of Viktor – his devotion to his hound, the flair of his early Paintings, the one he’d perfected last fall that spoke to Yuuri in his bones – until the hand in his pulled up and lips touched his knuckles.

 “Yuuri. You do care.”

 Yuuri blinked, and lifted his chin to stare at the silver-haired Painter. “Yuri?” He lifted his voice so that it would cut across the squabbling that continued between Viktor’s worried fellow apprentices. “I take it all back. Call him whatever names you like on the way home. He clearly hasn’t been paying any attention.”

 He glanced behind him in time to see Yuri turn and freeze. Otabek followed Yuri’s gaze and his shoulders slumped in relief.

 “Viktor! You ridiculous idiot.”

 Mila reached over and wrapped her arms around Sara, pulling her girlfriend to her until she could hide her face in the other girl’s shoulder.

 Makkachin interrupted whatever Yuri had been planning to screech at them next by running full tilt to knock them both over.

[nameasart-blog]

Interview with Alexandr_vselensky

This time we had an interview with alexandr_vselensky , an artist and Director of animated cartoons, in this interview Alexander will tell us about what inspires him, about the work on the creation of cartoons, and what the number 247 means in Mongolia.

First standard questions, how old are you and do you have art education? In your

profile indicated that you also have to do with cinema and animation, can you tell me a little about it?

- I'm 34. I graduated from VGIK with a degree in animation and computer graphics. Consist: CCR (Union of Artists of Russia), Ministry of agriculture (Moscow Union of Artists) - Department of unique graphics and there and there; RF IC (Union of Cinematographers of Russia) - directing animation.

Two of my films are on youtube - "the Era of Light"and " Seed". Animation for me, first of all, is an opportunity to show that the inner world of each individual is equal in importance to the outside world and one cannot exist without the other. In my films, the viewer becomes an accomplice to a fantastic journey happening on the screen. He, along with the characters passes a certain way. But this" way " the viewer passes not through the experience of history, but through fantastic images and the mystery that lives in these images.

- Just got acquainted with your works on YouTube, and they are actually worth viewing. In your work "the way of Light" very attractive backgrounds and interesting images, without flattery. Especially liked the hand with the door and the eerie spitting head and observant eyes in the trees .

And of course about the number 247. Have you heard about the designation of this number and the story has touched you so much that you decided to create a short film, or the idea came to you in another way?

- Initially, the film "the Era of Light" was supposed to have a different ending - but I did not like it. After a while I met a young artist from Mongolia. We showed each other our sketches and sketches, and one of my drawings was a house on the gate which I at the gate I drew 247 - just because he was there actually. My friend asked if I knew about the meaning of this number in Mongolia, I replied that no. He told me the meaning - and I realized what will be the final of my film.

- Wow, Alexander, you have a really interesting job!A few questions about the course of your work : how much time is spent on one cartoon, and the most favorite part of your work : maybe it is the study of characters or drawing backgrounds?

- "Era of Light" I did three years. "Seed" is also three years. This term is associated with many difficulties at all stages of work - because I do everything myself (except sound). In the "Seed" I was helped with the drawing of the character - but still it is a very large volume... My favorite part of the work is the stage of inventing the image of the world and the characters - sketches, rough storyboard. Working with music and sound, searching for the sound of a fantastic world, unusual sounds (I try to work with the composer on this - it's important to me). The rest is more performance, so it is lower. Well, when the film is completely ready-the feeling that finally it happened)

- Are you working on something now?

I'm working. I try to have several ideas in parallel, this helps to save a lot of time - one idea is doing while thoughts come, thoughts when one ends I switch to something else. Ideas often come from different areas of art: a series of graphics and storyboard for example, or painting and working on the script, etc. Since February 27, the all-Russian exhibition will be held in the CHA, I take part there. I am preparing for two exhibition projects that will take place in the spring - one realistic and the other fantastic. At the same time I work on the final storyboard of a fantastic cartoon, according to the script of Alexander Timofeevsky.By the General mood of the film should resemble the fantastic works of ray Bradbury.

- What inspires you?

- Graphics and painting. I'm inspired by everything I can think about.

- What inspires you?

- Graphics and painting. I'm inspired by everything I can think about. First of all, it is the most "ordinary" everyday life and its diversity. I am also inspired by a variety of philosophical searches of different thinkers. I feel art is inextricably linked to reflection and lifestyle. I think art is first of all an attempt of a person to reveal a certain secret, concluded deep inside him.

-What is the main incentive to work for you?

-I never thought I'd be perfect. Actually and never so was. The main incentive for me to work is my thoughts and the opportunity to share them with other people. Somehow, I think I've always thought about it. I think that there is much more to creativity than we used to think. When we come to what is hidden in him, we will have a very different, much deeper and fuller life than now.

-Do you have difficult periods in your work, when it does not come under any pretext ,what do you do to get rid of it?

- Creative crises happen of course. When this happens-I understand that we need to take time out. During such periods I think, read and watch a lot.

- Is support important for you?

- Any support is always very important for me-it adds confidence in what I do.

- Does your work cover your expenses?

- While I do not get to make creativity for a living. Therefore, creativity has to be combined with work that brings income, allowing you to eat, pay taxes, etc. Now I have come to a certain balance in this, although of course I would like to be engaged only in creativity and not to be distracted by anything else - I am working on solving this problem.

- What short cartoons and films would you recommend to watch?

-I can recommend a few movies (animation and gaming) that has made me the strongest impression: "wild planet" (animation, rené laloux), "the Seventh seal" (feature, Ingemar)

"The seventh seal" (game, Ingmar Bergman), "Glass harmonica" (animation, Andrew Hrzhanovsky), "Hedgehog in the fog" (animation, Yuri Norstein), dune (game, David Lynch), "Terminator-2" (game, James Cameron), "Akira" (animation, Katsuhiro Otomo), "tales of the fog moon after the rain" (game, Kenji Mizoguchi), "Stalker" (game, Andrew Tarkovsky), "little Buddha" (game, Bernardo Bertolucci),

"Ghost in the shell" (animation, Mamoru Hosea), "Phantasm (1-3)" (game, don Coscarelli), "Space Odyssey 2001" (game, Stanley Kubrick), "Science of the valley of the winds" (animation, Hayao Miyazaki), "the Last man" (animation, series), "alien" (game, Ridley Scott), "trigan" (animation, series), "Mandy" (game, Panos Kosmatos), "avatar, the legend of korra" (animation, krovi)," Apocalypse today "(s gaming, Francis Ford Coppola)," dig " (animation, Anatoly Petrov) - roughly so.

[fyodorscenarios]

I would like to ask you, If you can, a scenario/headcanon (you decide which one) of Fyodor falling in love at first sight (even if he doesn't like the idea or doesn't believe in it) with a famous pianist in which he met in one of his missions and how he would do after realizing it ^^^

Thank you for your request! It’s a great idea, so I decided to go with a scenario since I was inspired. Sorry about taking so long to get to it. 

I really liked how this one turned out!

PS. It has some mentions of mature themes, but nothing graphic. 

-

This is unlike him. Perhaps it’s the effortless emotion carried through your musicianship. Or it might be the way you move so effortlessly in tune with the song, almost as if it is playing you instead. He’s mesmerized, and oh how he loathes it.

Despite his short time on Earth, Fyodor Dostoevsky had seen many great musicians. You were no exception, though he had never felt quite like this before.

He may have described it, if he were willing to, as something vile yet strikingly warm. It drew out his compulsions, but he was apt at resisting. He dug his nails in his palms instead, control yourself.

Time continues to pass, and he feels strapped to his seat. When you stand from the piano to bow, he’s shocked.

How long had it been?

This was an important question.

-

He is one to obsess, and he knows this. Although he hasn’t obsessed with much else in a very long time.

He gets to work soon after he returns to his apartment; assuming you won’t be leaving tonight. Bloodied hands typing away at his keyboard.

“Как абсурдно,” he mutters. *

-

It’s your second night in Moscow. You were quite glad for the break you had before travelling again, and had stopped by a bar for the night.

It was a quite place, not well known, but nice in your opinion. You had never been one to enjoy crowded rooms. Besides yourself and the bartender there were only a couple of men sitting at a booth.

As you stir the small straw in your cocktail, you hear the door open behind you. Turning slightly you make accidental eye contact with the entrant, and therefore flash a quick smile so as not to be rude. He sits a seat away from you at the bar table, placing his ushanka on the table beside him.

He orders his drink, and again the room falls practically silent, save for the quiet conversation of the other two men.

You eye your cocktail again, attempting to stop yourself from looking back at the new customer. You swore that he had purple eyes, but that seemed wrong.

“Excuse me miss,” the man says, and you feel yourself jolt.

You turn to him. “May I ask,” his voice is smooth, “are you the pianist (y/n) (l/n) by any chance?”

You nod, dumbfounded. It wasn’t often that you were recognized in public, your notoriety only reaching into classical music circles after all.

“I had the pleasure of attending your concert the other night. Your performance was incredible.”

“Ah—well, thank you very much sir. I’m glad you thought so.” you regain a fraction of your composure.

You blink, the man in question did have purple eyes. Fascinating, you think. “You know me, so it would be rude of me not to ask your name.” You twiddle your thumbs under the bar counter.

“Fyodor Dostoevsky,” he says.

“Good to meet you,” you reply. “Do you see concerts often?”

“As much as I can,” Fyodor says. “but I’m usually quite busy with work.”

“I see. You know, I was quite nervous up there.”

“Really?” he raises his eyebrows, “I’m sure you had everyone fooled.”

You laugh, “that’s reassuring”.

“I think I was the most nervous during Hammerklavier. I was hoping I did good old Ludwig van justice,” you continue.

“I think you did,” Fyodor smiles.

Oh no, how cute.

“Umm, thank you.” you feel a bit embarrassed now. “Wait—are you just drinking straight vodka?”

“Of course.”

“Wow, you really are incredibly Russian!” you giggle.

Fyodor looks down at the table, almost as if he’s flustered.

You feel yourself blush. Maybe the alcohol was finally getting to you?

-

Fyodor doesn’t really think about what he’s doing three hours later. Your arms are draped around his neck, and he hasn’t stopped thinking in a very long time.

He was not one to give into his human urges so easily, but it was unlikely that he would be able to meet with you like this again. There would be no guilt, because there would be nothing for him to be guilty of.

You enter his apartment, sobered by the cold walk outside, and conscious of exactly what would be happening. You were lonely, so fucking lonely. It had taken your meeting with him to admit to that. At the moment, you hated your career.

His kisses are absolutely filthy and forceful, you hadn’t expected that. Though by now you had noticed the strange darkness simmering under his facade. You feel it radiate off of him when he leads you to the wall, when you feel his knee between your thighs, and you wanted more of it.

It is carnal and depraved.

-

Fyodor is sleeping soundly beside you when you wake up. His black hair is tousled and falling over his eyes. He looks so incredibly innocent, but you can feel the bruising on your neck.

You want to mark him too. You want to paint his pale skin with purple and red, he looks too much like porcelain. And so you surprise him.

-

“Give me your cellphone,” you insist, standing by his front door.

“Really?” he seems surprised for some reason.

“Yes,” you say, “just in case we’re in the same city again. I-I want to know you better.”

He smirks, handing you his phone. You quickly send a text to your number from it, feeling a bit embarrassed again.

“I take it you had a good time then?”

“Hey,” you blush, “of course I did! Don’t be smug about it…”

“Sorry,” he laughs slightly. “I hope to see you again.”

-

It’s probably better this way, Fyodor thinks. You both travel quite often, no attachments need to be made, nor should they be.

He cannot deny his feelings, but at least in this case you are as minimal of a distraction as you probably could be.

If there is ever a right time; perhaps when the world has been purged, he resolves to find you again.

-

* How absurd

[elisaenglish]

“I must move myself first, before I move others,” Sylvia Plath writes in her journal of September 1958. Although mired in the purgatorial torment of her art diminished beneath the stagnant weight of marital domesticity, I feel less drawn to the obvious contemporaneous comparisons with The Feminine Mystique and more in need of that musing at the root of all creative things, first alluded to over two millennia beforehand when Socrates declared, “Let him who would move the world, first move himself.”

Shift. Change. Progress. Paradoxically an outward act and an inward process – and God, the necessity of it. And me, as I always am at this time of year, gathering the words, measuring the hours in that unconscious way of sifting the lines of this life – and maybe the one that could arise – by harnessing those seeds of inspiration.

It’s never quite the same, one late summer to the next, and I don’t want to write great screeds of my own when the point is percolation. Something for me, but left here too for your contemplation. And no, not Plath – but Tchaikovsky and his 1878 letter to his benefactress, Nadezhda von Meck. Seventy years back from Plath, and just shy of the same between Plath and now, and me and you, and it’s all the fucking same. Or maybe it’s my substitute for madness.

Who knows? But we link, and I deliquesce into the movement of it:

“How much joy your letter brought me today, my precious Nadezhda Filaretovna. How immeasurably happy I was that the symphony pleased you, that when hearing it you experienced the feelings with which I was suffused when I wrote it, and that the music sank into your heart.

You asked me whether there is a definite programme to this symphony? Usually when this question is put to me about a symphonic work my answer is: none! Indeed, this is a difficult question to answer. How can one put into words the intangible sensations which one experiences when writing an instrumental work without a specific subject? This is a purely lyrical process. This is, fundamentally, an unburdening of the soul in music, with its essence distilled into sounds, in the same manner in which a lyrical poet expresses himself in verse. The only difference is that music has much more powerful means and a more subtle language with which to express thousands of different emotions and frames of mind. Usually the seed of a future work will manifest itself suddenly in unexpected ways. If the soil is fertile, i.e. if there is a disposition to work, the seed will take root with remarkable power and swiftness, allowing buds to emerge from the soil, followed by leaves, branches and, ultimately, flowers. I cannot define the creative process without resorting to metaphors. The difficulty lies in the fact that the seed requires favourable conditions in which to germinate. Everything else happens by itself. It would be futile for me to try to express to you in words the immeasurable bliss of all the feelings that seize me when a main idea appears, and when it begins to flourish into a particular form. I forget everything and become literally like a madman, everything within me shakes and pulses, with barely time to scribble out my sketches as one idea runs into another... Sometimes in the midst of this magical process, some external stimulus will jolt me out of this somnambuilistic state. Somebody might call, a servant enter, or a clock will strike and remind me that I need to go out on business... Such breaks are inexpressibly burdensome. Sometimes inspiration will fly away for quite a while. It's necessary to search for it, and often in vain. It is frequently necessary to fall back on an altogether cold, rational and technical working method. Perhaps it is because of this that the greatest masters have moments with an absence of organic flair, where the seams within the whole appear artificially sewn together. But it is impossible for it to be otherwise. If the condition of the artist's soul called inspiration that I am attempting to describe to you were to be continued without interruption, it should be impossible to live for a single day. The strings would snap, and the instrument should be dashed into smithereens! Only one thing is necessary: that the principal idea and the general outlines of all the movements did not come about by striving, but rather that they present themselves as a result of that supernatural, incomprehensible, and unfathomable force that is called inspiration.

But I have digressed on an aside without answering your question. In our symphony there is a programme, i.e. it is possible to express in words what it is trying to say, and to you, and only to you, I am able and willing to explain the meaning both of the whole and of the separate movements. Of course, I can do this only in general terms.

The introduction is the seed of the whole symphony, undoubtedly the main idea. This is Fate: this is that fateful force which prevents the impulse to happiness from attaining its goal, which jealously ensures that peace and happiness shall not be complete and unclouded, which hangs above the head like the sword of Damocles, unwaveringly, constantly poisoning the soul. It is an invincible force that can never be overcome — merely endured, hopelessly.

The bleak and hopeless feelings grow stronger and intense. Is it not better to escape from reality and to immerse oneself in dreams. Oh joy! Out of nowhere a sweet and gentle day-dream appears. Some blissful, radiant human image hurries by and beckons us away. How wonderful! How distant the obsessive first theme of the allegro now sounds! Gradually the soul is enveloped by daydreams. Everything gloomy and joyless is forgotten. Here it is, here it is — happiness!

No! These were daydreams, and Fate wakes us from them. And thus all life is an unbroken alternation of harsh reality with fleeting dreams and visions of happiness... No haven exists... Drift upon that sea until it engulfs and submerges you in its depths. That, roughly, is the programme of the first movement.

The second movement of the symphony expresses another aspect of sadness. This is that melancholy feeling which comes in the evening when, weary from one's toil, one sits alone with a book — but it falls from the hand. There come a whole host of memories. It is sad that so much is now in the past, albeit pleasant to recall one's youth. Both regretting the past, and yet not wishing to begin life over again. Life is wearisome. It is pleasant to rest and look around. Memories abound! Happy moments when the young blood boiled, and life was satisfying. There are also painful memories, irreconcilable losses. All this is now somewhere far distant. It is both sad, yet somehow sweet to be immersed in the past.

The third movement expresses no specific feeling. This is whimsical arabesques, vague images which can sweep past the imagination after drinking a little wine and feeling the first phases of intoxication. The spirit is neither cheerful, nor sad. Thinking about nothing in particular, giving free rein to the imagination, which somehow begins to paint strange pictures... Amid these memories there suddenly comes a picture of drunken peasants and a street song... Then, somewhere in the distance, a military procession passes. These are completely incoherent images which sweep through the head as one falls asleep. They have nothing in common with reality; they are strange, wild, and incoherent.

The fourth movement. If within yourself you find no reasons for joy, then look at others. Go out among the people. See how they can enjoy themselves, surrendering themselves wholeheartedly to joyful feelings. Picture the festive merriment of ordinary people. Hardly have you managed to forget yourself and to be carried away by the spectacle of the joys of others, than irrepressible fate appears again and reminds you of yourself. But others do not care about you, and they have not noticed that you are solitary and sad. O, how they are enjoying themselves! How happy they are that all their feelings are simple and straightforward. Reproach yourself, and do not say that everything in this world is sad. Joy is a simple but powerful force. Rejoice in the rejoicing of others. To live is still possible.

That, my dear friend, is all I can explain to you about the symphony. Of course, this is vague and incomplete. But an intrinsic quality of instrumental music is that it does not yield to detailed analysis. Where words end, music begins, as Heine remarked.

It's already late. I'm not writing anything to you about Florence at this time, except that its very, very pleasant memories will stay with me for my whole life. At the end of next week, that is, around the 24th (by our style), I am thinking of going to Switzerland, where I intend to live quietly for the whole of March, gradually writing compositions in a variety of small forms. And so, when you receive this letter, my address shall once again be: Clarens, Canton de Vaud, Villa Richelieu.

Thank you, my dear, for today's letter. I still have had no word from my Moscow friends. I will write to you about my opinion of them in detail.

P. Tchaikovsky

P. S. Just as I was about to put the letter in an envelope, I re-read it and was horrified at the incoherence and inadequacy of the programme I sent to you. This is the first time in my life that I have attempted to translate musical thoughts and images into words, and I could not manage to do this adequately. I was severely depressed last winter when writing the symphony, and it serves as a faithful echo of what I was experiencing. But it is known as an echo. How can it be translated into a clear and coherent succession of words? I do not know how to do that. I have already forgotten so much. They remain general recollections of the passions and mysterious feelings that I experienced. I am very, very curious about what my Moscow friends will say. Farewell.”

[doomedandstoned]

ELDER

Rallies Russia!

-Review: Nick DiSalvo | Forward: Billy Goate-

-Photos: Mo Nemo | Film: Anton Rodionov-

"The funny thing I've noticed about Russians is how reserved they can be, but then when the music is playing they are going crazy, moshing or stage diving, and crowd surfing the whole time."

Earlier this month, Doomed & Stoned brought you a two-part feature on Acid King's first ever appearance in the Russian Federation. Now, we are pleased to present the sights and sounds of another cross-continental concert tour, that of the mighty ELDER.

You're looking at another stunner of a photoset from the young Saint Petersburg photographer Mo Nemo, snapped at Elder's MOD Club show on August 3rd, 2017. The night before, Nick DiSalvo (vocals, guitar), Jack Donovan (bass), Matt Couto (drums), and new member Michael Risberg (guitar) played at The Volta in Moscow. The Re-Stoned, a band we've long touted as a prime example of Russian heavy psychedelic rock, opened on that particular evening. Ilya Lipkin (guitar), Vladimir Kislyakov (bass), and Andrey Pristavka (drums) performed a sublime series of songs from their recent LP, 'Reptiles Return' (2016). It was, of course, time for Elder to show off fresh tracks, too, namely selections from the new album that topped the Doom Charts: 'Reflections Of A Floating World' (2017 - Stickman Records).

By all accounts, the setlist included almost all the songs from Reflections..., including "Sanctuary," "The Falling Veil," "Staving Off Truth," "Blind," and "Thousand Hands." Let me tell you, that second guitarist has sure come in handy in pulling these off! The band also played what is now a bonafide hit: "Compendium" off of 'Lore' (2015 - Armageddon Shop). That song in many ways foreshadowed the complexity of the new material. Then there was the beloved "Gemini" from 'Dead Roots Stirring' (2011 - MeteorCity Records), which no Elder performance would quite be complete without.

I reached out to frontman Nick DiSalvo this week for comment on their trip. "Well," he replied, "I can certainly share some thoughts about Russia in a stream of consciousness sort of way with you." That was just fine by me, and I invited Nick to give us all a first-hand account of his band's visit to this land rich in vodka, literature, political intrigue, and most of all music. My piano teacher, who came to the US from Russia for her doctorate degree, is a disciplinarian. From her I've gotten an idea of how seriously Russians take the art and the science of music. You'll find this quite easy to confirm both anecdotally and historically.

How, then, would heavy music fans of the Moscow and Saint Petersburg underground take to the soaring progressive stylings of these four ambitious muzykanty from the States? The next words your read will be from Nick's tablet...

We've been to Russia twice now, both times in the same cities (Moscow and St Petersburg). I can only assume that sounds as fascinating to most American readers as it was for us. I think we have a very biased view of Russia in the States and assume that the country is very "foreign." Let me tell you, that's definitely not the case in these two cities -- two of the biggest in Europe (if you want to count Russia as part of Europe). We're lucky to work with a really cool promotions team over there called Madstream. Their guys Andrey and Vadim have surprised us with their professionalism and hospitality that's truly a leg up from the rest of Europe, even. That's really saying something, since most European clubs and promoters treat bands amazingly.

We had an early flight in from Milan to Moscow and were pretty whacked out after an hour and half drive from the airport through the city to the venue. The city never ends! The sprawl of Moscow is truly awe-inspiring, not necessarily in the best way.

In Saint Petersburg (band photo)

We got in for soundcheck at the venue Volta. Big stage. The club could be suited for any kind of gig and certainly doesn't give off the dingy rock club vibes (except for the makeshift water closet backstage that really does remind you you're in Eastern Europe). Soundcheck is fine and we retire to a long forgotten luxury for a few hours, the hotel, to catch some sleep.

I sleep through my alarm and wake up to Mike jostling me, since we need to get back for bus call. This is different for us, getting shuttled around to hotels and back. Normally, we travel in a sort of converted camper van and a stationary bed and shower are truly a treat. I don't know how many fans we really have in Russia, in Moscow maybe 200-250 people come to the show. For a city of 20 million I'd say that it's not much, but the scene is really just developing here.

The fans who do come are rabid and we get a rare taste of what it must be like to play in a famous band. Leave the backstage area and everyone grabs you, wants a photo, an autograph, to tell you an anecdote, and you realize the bizarre and fantastic nature of your situation: an American band in Russia surrounded by people who are just like you, music enthusiasts stoked on a concert. The funny thing I've noticed about Russians is how reserved they can be, but then when the music is playing they are going crazy, moshing or stage diving, and crowd surfing the whole time.

Welcome Package! (band photo)

A nice photographer we met on our previous trip is backstage and gives us some gifts: a bottle of vodka, some matchboxes, lemonade, all labeled with handmade Elder labels. That's pretty damn cool. The venue feeds us well and too much on borscht (a Russian tomato soup), lasagna, chicken. It's all fantastic, too. Our show is fine, despite an amp blowing up. Matt, Mike, and I improvise a jam for what feels like 10 minutes while a stage crew struggles to replace it. After the gig, we hang for a bit with the fans and drink some beer, then head back to the hotel where Boris is checking in for their gigs in Russia the same week. We try to drunkenly convince them to hang out with us in our hotel room, but they politely refuse.

In Saint Petersburg (band photo)

The next morning we have a train to St Petersburg, 4.5 hours away with the fast train, which is super modern and clean like much of what we've seen of these cities. Jack and I laugh at English translations of items in the "on board shop" magazine, order some souvenirs, and are amazed to see our photo and some information about our gig last night in the train magazine (the equivalent of finding your photo in an in-flight magazine on an airplane). When we arrive we're again transported to a hotel in St Petersburg. This city's historical center is absolutely beautiful, full of "old" buildings (the city itself is relatively new, from the 1800s) and Czarist monuments and buildings. Instead of sleeping, we have a walk around and look for some food. We're not exactly successful.

Tickets for the big show!   Photo by Denis Kolpakov

When we arrive at the venue for soundcheck, we're surprised to find it's directly in the historical center, not a five-minute walk from the winter palace. After soundcheck, we take a tour of the area with another guy from the show. The great thing about this area is the souvenirs. You can find amazing coffee mugs and all kinds of kitsch with photos of Trump and Putin on them (in 2016 it was mostly Putin kicking Obama's ass, etc.).

The show tonight is smaller, but also a lot of fun and we play every song we have, again. Last time St Petersburg was crazier, this time Moscow wins in the energetic fan competition, but still people are dancing, moshing, and having a great time. We do the dance of autographs and fan photos after the show and then return to the hotel, more exhausted than anything else. The next morning we manage to catch some breakfast in the lobby where a large Jewish travel group is doing the same. Our trip to the airport and back to the van waiting for us in Vienna is uneventful, but the trip in Russia leaves again a lasting positive impression that we're not so different after all.

Live & Loud:

Moscow

Live & Loud:

Saint Petersburg

"The fans who do come are rabid..."

"We're not so different after all."

Follow The Band.

Get Their Music.

[dahcyst]

A Flower for the Bee [Chapter 6]

[AO3 link : http://archiveofourown.org/works/9238850/chapters/21205610]

The next day, Yuri had waken up with some difficulties. He hadn't drunk last night for his birthday, as he was still underage for the two incoming years, but going home so late after the small party had just left him dead in his bed. Dealing with J.J. had been quite weird and totally impossible. Dark eyes had been looking down on him when he'd tried to get the man's cellphone, and the smirk on J.J.'s face was really pissing him off. Victor had soon stopped both them, claiming the phone as his -and it actually was true: J.J. hadn't been using his own cell the whole night and Yuri learned later that Victor had lent an old one of his to the Canadian. It seemed that his coming from so far wasn't that prepared as he hadn't made the advances for a journey phone credit.  

He'd tried to ask Victor –more or less roughly, violently, even threatened the man, but the skater never returned the phone, and didn't even bother answer to Yuri's rude words.  

"None of my business, boys," he'd said despite the protests.  

After that, the party hadn't last for long, and Yakov had drove him back home; it appeared that J.J.  was really sleeping at Victor's during his stay. At the end of the evening (or the early morning? He wasn't sure), the man looked pretty exhausted and Yuri had suddenly remembered the huge jet lag between Russia and Canada. It was already quite impressive that J.J. had survived that entire time –or maybe he'd taken a nap in the afternoon before taking him to Victor's place.  

Speacking of J.J., Yuri hadn't seen any pictures of the small party on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr...He'd checked Victor's, J.J.'s, aven Yakov's account even though the old man wasn't one to take pictures and didn't quite understand how to upload a photograph, let alone make a publication alone. He used to ask Georgi or Mila when he needed some help.  

J.J.'s accounts on social medias didn't have anything new published since...Days. Weeks. It had made Yuri frown a little since J.J. had always been someone who posted a lot of things –especially things that made others feel like they wanted to punch him right in the face, and especially Yuri. But the last thing Yuri saw in tCanadian's feed was that selfie Isabella and him had taken together at the end of their wedding. He was still wearing her white veil, her dark hair hair tied up in an amazing bun that Yuri was petty sure it had taken hours to make due to the lack of lenght.  

"Wow, got new clothes?"  

At Mila's words, Yuri raised his eyes up to her as he was lacing his skates and nodded silently. With that gaze of hers, he knew that she was aware of what had happened the night before –or at least about that gift. Did she knew about Otabek, the incoming duet and why she was training so much with him lately?  

"You look a bit tired, is it gonna be ok today?" She asked sitting near on the same bench.  

"I'll go easy for today," he sighed. "Yakov's been pretty irresponsable for once, taking me home soooo late..."  

He knew for sure that Victor wouldn't be here in the morning : the man was a heavy sleeper and knowing that J.J. was at his place didn't help with that feeling. Before leaving his phone on the bench with his towel, Yuri gave an eye in his mailbox in case he would get a new message from Otabek. He actually hadn't been sleeping right away after getting home last night, sending some words to the Kazakh. The man had answered almost immediatly, putting his nerves to the edge. For God's sake, when was he even sleeping!?

 Yura : "When are you coming in Moscow then?"

   Ota-bee : "By the end of the week, I'll tell you"

   Yura : "Ok then"

Oh man. It had kept him from sleeping for a good couple of hours more and he wasn't sure if he had even sleep a complete hour that night. His brain was feeling like dead, not running properly to his liking –he didn't have strenght enough to answer back Mila's bad jokes. His body was painful enough to make him grunt even more than usually. But the idea of skating with Otabek Altin was somehow worth it. Well, not somehow. The simple thought of being able to stand by his side on the ice made his heart jolt and beat so hard that he wasn't sure if it was due to the excitment or the tireness or anything.  

Mila laughed gently, then patted his head with her thin hand. "You're a lot on your phone lately," she said. "Finally got a girlfriend?"  

Before he could even think about his answer, Yuri gave her a dark death glare as he was leaving his phone screen for a few seconds. "What?"  

"Wow, don't look at me like that, you're scary!"  

"Your fault! What kind of nonsense are you saying!?" Yuri spit. He had tightened his grip on the frame of his phone, his thumb pushing pretty fast on the main button to darken the screen. But she grinned anyway; he hadn't been quick enough for it not to be noticed.  

"Sooooo, what's her name?" She continued.  

Yuri grit his teeth. "There's no 'her', stupid!"  

She opened her eyes wild. "Oh! That's a 'he' then? I didn't know you were into guys!"  

Yuri coughed pretty hard at her suggestion and the lace slip off his hands as he was giving her the most threatening gaze of his. Or at least he tried but the sudden heat all other his face wasn't  helping and he wasn't sure if being red to the ears was something convincing enough against Mila.  

"WHAT!?"

"What 'what'?" She shrugged. "Aren't you?"

"I'M NOT GAY OF COURSE YOU DUMBASS!"  

The silence that fell between the two of them suddenly took him deep and he felt a heavy lump forming in his throat as Mila was staring at him. Her gaze was as curious as puzzled. The few people not so far around the rink had turned their attention toward them and it made him feel pretty bad. But the young woman soon sighed softly, standing slowly.  

"Yeah," she simply said. "You're not, of course. Sorry if I've upset you, okay?"  

Once again this week, Yuri felt the guilt taking him deep in his stomach. Mila's features had suddenly changed and if he didn't know why, he knew it was because of what he'd just said. That subject was something he'd never really thought about. A girlfriend, or even a boyfriend, weren't something that had their place in his life right now. He didn't have enough time or energy for such things –let alone nobody was interesting enough in his current daily life to even consider the idea.  

"O-okay," he mumbled.  

She quickly left, gone for a little warm-up on the ice and Yuri sighed, pushing again on the button of his cellphone to enlight the screen again. Otabek was online and he counted. It was something like lunch time for the Kazakh and he didn't even got surprised when the picture of a plate full of letuce and chicken suddenly appeared in their conversation.  

 Ota-bee : "Seriously I feel like a girl on a diet"  

Yuri hardly held his laughter back.  

 Yura : "wtf why are you eating that?"  

   Ota-bee : "Coach said so?"

   Yura : "don't tell me you're one to listen to your coach!"

   Ota-bee : "why not, it worked pretty well till now"

Yuri stared at it for a few good seconds, trying to imagine Otabek purposely doing whatever his coach would be asking him to do. Was his body, his final frame, his strength, the result of what his coach had decided? Or did Otabek himself asked for this. Their was something that Yuri knew about Otabek: his skills on the ice were ones that had make Victor coming back in competition, and for this the Kazakh was a serious rival. He had't been the only one to be that reason, of course, just a part of the story, but still. Victor had taken an interest on the young man –or, more specifically, his body.  

Yuri sighed.  

 Yura : "ok ok why not"

   Ota-bee : "How is your training btw?"

   Yura : "terrible"

   Ota-bee : "?"

   Yura : "wanna sleep"

   Ota-bee : "Ahah same to be honest"

He caught himself smiling at the written laughter; he coud imagine the soft giggle from the man, the dimples at the corner of his mouth and his eyes, sweet and dark at the same time as he would be shaking his head a little.  

 Yura : "Take a nap dumbass"

   Ota-bee : "I will"

   Ota-bee : "but it's kind of crowded here now"

   Yura : "Really?"  

   Ota-bee : "Yeah small demo this afternoon"

   Ota-bee : "Hope I won's sleep on the ice lol"

Yuri huffed a little at the unusual 'lol' at the end of the message. It wasn't so...Not Otabek? The man wasn't one to use that type of shortcut –most of the time he typed full sentences, except sometimes when he was in a rush or something that kept him from being able to take his time to write properly on his cellphone.  

 Yura: "sleep now then?"

   Ota-bee : "no way"

   Yura : "man, you're stupid?"

   Ota-bee : "We are chatting, i don't want to sleep now"

Yuri had suddenly been holding his breath and the only thing that made him inspire again was Mila's call for him. Oh dears. What could he honestly answer to this when he only wanted to be a few days ahead of now?  

 Yura : "I'm off see you"

Then he shove his phone between his folded towel layers to hide it at least a little and decided to finally join the young woman. What was that, seriously? Yuri didn't like what he'd just done, leaving Otabek so suddenly when the man had just said...Uh. Well, when he'd just said that. Had the Kazakh absolutly no pride to be able to say such a thing to a friend?  

"Hey Yuuuuriiiii!" Mila called again.  

With a deep sigh and a grimace at his painful articulations when he'd stand up, Yuri reached the young woman. Mila's hair was finally long enough to tie it up in a very small ponytail and it showed up her so little ears. With her pale skin and puckish blue eyes, let alone her deviish smile and than damn body of her, the boy was pretty sure she was incredibly attractive and might have tons of suitors. But he'd never seen her with someone until now.  

She watched him coming, hands on her hips and tsk'ed a little at him, making the blond raise a eyebrow. "Boy, you look sooo down! Are you really tired?"  

"I already fucking told you, Mila! They trapped me last night in Victor's apartment! I've barely slept, I'm DEAD, how can't you get something so simple?"

She laughed a little at his mad expression. "Right, riiiiight!"  

Cheeks red from being suddenly annoyed, Yuri mumbled and started sliding on the ice to get used to the thing again during a few seconds. Here. Like that. He needed that. He wanted that soft feeling of air brushing his face, his body suddenly so light as it was heading straight on this line. His knees were still as fuck, the dull pain irradiating from his articulations to the muscles of his thights. Sometimes, it was unbearable and he wondered how he still hadn't given up on all that shit.  

Georgi soon joined them in the training. The man wasn't preparing the new season. If he hadn't retired, his life had slightly changed since he met his new girlfriend and to be honest, his personnality was way smoother than when he was dating that superficial Anya.  

"Hey, Yuri!" Georgi suddenly called.  

The boy stopped strenching his body at the sound of his voice and turned his attention to him. The man was scratching his head and slid with curiosity near Yuri before suddenly grabbing his sides with both hands. He earned a surprised sound.  

"GEOR--"

"Are you injured or something?" He simply asked.  

Yuri blinked a little. "What?"

Georgi was frowning a little, visibly concerned. "Aren't you?" He continued. "I thought so, your skating is quite different lately."

The blond Russian froze a little at Georgi's words. Was it so obvious that something was happening? Had he been so freacking bad that even Georgi had noticed? Not hat Georgi was a bad skater, not at all, but he wasn't one to really care about others' way of skating.  

Yuri swallowed the lump in his throat with some difficulties. "I...Might have some cramps," he lied. Or rather, it wasn't completly a lie. He was, at least, admitting that something wasn't really ok. Georgi raised an eyebrow.  

"Aaahh, I was right then! Since when? Is it painful? You skate a little as if you had, uh, well..."

"As if I had what?"

"A tree up in your ass, actually."  

Yuri stared at the man for a moment, not sure if he had really heard what he had just heard. But Georgi was still standing before him, intensively thinking about the situation.  

"What the fuck did you say?"

"Oh, I mean, you still skate like a damn goddess –DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, you were the prima ballerina after all!"  

"SPIT IT ALREADY POPOVITCH!"

"But that's a bit weird, I mean, you're stiff and all that, like, well, I mean, that's just why I'm asking? You look so uncomfortable with your body right now, that's the weirdest thing I've ever seen from you!"

"Shitty bast--"  

But Mila's hand suddenly on the top of his head stopped Yurio in his incoming colorful cursing litany toward Georgi. Her fingers were cold and her looks concerned.  

"What?" He growled.  

But she only shrugged a little with a small odd smile –and for once he was prtty sure it wasn't made out of pity.  

"Georgi, go train somewhere else," she said. "And leave us some room, ok?"  

"What the...Yeah, ok, ok!"  

The man mumbled when she scowled him a death glare, and Yuri could swear that he wouldn't have looked better himself at that 'dark eyes' game. Once Georgi was gone, or at least far away enough for her liking, she turned back to him.  

"So..." She grinned at the boy, stretching a little on place, arms above her head. "What can't you do anymore?"

Yuri frowned deeply. "I didn't say I--"

"I said," she cut out. "What can't you do anymore?"  

He clenched his jaw, almost painfully, silent for a few good seconds as she was staring at him. "Mila, I--"

"Don't you want to dance with Otabek?"  

The question suddenly went out, lingering in the air for a moment as he froze. Before he knew it, she had put her arm around his neck, body close enough to his and wa whispering to hi ear. Her breath was hot, like damn, how could she be like that when the place was made of ice?  

"I'm here to teach you, Yuri," she murmured. "So, don't you want it? Dancing with him? Do you really think that you're powerful enough to be paired with the guy?"  

Powerful was the word. Yuri gulped despite himself at the memory of the srong body evoluating on the ice and Mila scoffed a little at his discreet reaction.  

"Now, you'd only be a pain in the ass for him, ok? You don't fit his style at all, and as I'm the one who know the choreo, I can tell that you have a lot to do in such a few time, baby tiger..."  

She laughed a little more openly at his decomposed expression, especially when his green eyes were looking for an escape on her face. She suddenly burst into a huge laughter this time, and gave a big hit in his back with her hand, making his cough so hard that he thought he was going to spit out his lungs.  

"Don't make such a face, babe!" She said. From the distance, Georgi was giving them a curious look, full with his lack of understanding. She didn't give him any attention.  

Yuri sighed, this time without holding hmself back. As tired as he was, Mila's words had made their way to his brain and he could feel the hint of excitment making his guts twitch with need.  

"Why are you doing this?" He asked.  

"Victor told me," she shrugged and he winced a little. "Plus, it's pretty funny to see you in this situation. And somehow..."  

She leaned a little, back to his ear. Her nose brushed against his lob and he gulped softly at the feeling. Dears.  

"...I wonder how Otabek would answer to such a strong and amazing danse with you, don't you?"

[librarified2004]

Here we go again...

This looked like fun. Hijacked from the amazing @the-random-fandom-one, so the actual title of this should be “@dammittmarie, you made me do another survey!”  Reblog with your answers! I want to get more communication going in the writing community here. Answer one, answer some! Answer whatever you want to! 1. What was the first character you ever created? I’ve been writing stories since I could pick up a writing utensil. I think the first character I ever really put a ton of thought into, though, was this character I played in an MMORPG during undergrad. Her name was Lindarian, and her past was tragic: the half-elven child of an illegal union between a mortal and an elf princess, she was basically raised in seclusion only to watch her three older half-brothers and her parents be brutally murdered on her eighteenth birthday. Man, even before I knew what fanfiction was, I knew how to whump a character. 

2. Is there a specific thing that made you want to start writing more? The MMORPG I played as an undergrad and grad student went down for good in about 2005, and after that, I stopped writing stories because there was no reason, really, to further develop that character. I got a job and started doing some professional writing--blogs and reviews and that kind of thing. Then I reconnected with an old friend who had written an entire book, and he started pushing me to do fiction again. I played around with some ideas, even published a short story, before I discovered fanfiction through a professional development class that I had to take. I can’t go back to school for my MFA in creative writing at this point, but I think writing fanfic is saving my sanity as well as giving me a sort of ad hoc, DIY MFA where I work at my own pace and set my own curriculum. Plus, some days it really saves my sanity. In the wise words of Lin-Manuel Miranda, I can pick up a pen and write my own deliverance.

3. Favorite character you’ve ever created? In the short story I published, “Swan Song,” I had this side character who existed simply to be my villain. I didn’t pay him much attention until very late in the creative process, when the editor said the big reveal was too abrupt. (He was right.) So I took that character out to coffee--literally, I took my laptop and a notebook to my favorite coffee place so I could have a distraction-free conversation with him--lit him a smoke (funny thing, I don’t smoke, but literally everyone in that story does and my smoker friends say I got that exactly right), and really, for the first time, tried to get to know him. I knew only the basics, but it turned out he had this whole past (tragic) and motivations that I’d never even seen. Knowing all this didn’t just change the reveal, it pivoted the entire story, and when I sat down to rework that reveal, the words just poured out. It turned out that he was rather an anti-villain and he ended up in an awesome place--if I ever write a sequel to that story, it will be his to tell. Nik, the villain of “Swan Song,” is my favorite because he taught me to look deeper, love harder, and never have a character unless you’ve taken the time to know them all the way down to their shoe size. 

4. Do your stories tend to have only a few characters or a lot?

As few as possible. In fact, I kind of freak out a little bit when I realize I need another character to serve some purpose. 

5. Do you sit down and plan out your worlds or just let them build themselves as you write?

Some of both, really. I tend to write a lot of fanfiction exchanges (or at least, that’s what gets published), and I always do a thorough canon review before I start plotting so I can get voices and world-building details right. My one published original short story is set in Moscow during WWII, and I did a bunch of research on that setting and time period before I went in, but I never really tried to force anything to fit. Interestingly, during revisions, I was able to go back and add date stamps to certain plot points based on my historical research. But  that story also has a magic twist to it (it was for a fantasy anthology) and the magic part just came to me, no building required. 

6. Do you ever meet people and want to write about them? Fictional characters, all the time. I love writing missing scenes. I don’t put much of real-life people into my characters (but I totally could--I work in a public library. Public libraries are literally the last remaining free resource in this country and my job is madness.)

7. What kind of environment do you do most of your writing in? Music or no music? Loud or quiet? In private or wherever? Depends on the day and the story. I have a novel in progress (which will never be finished, probably) and for that I have entire playlists of music for each character. But if there’s music, there can’t be words in a language I can understand, because I will end up singing along. No TV or movies, because I end up watching instead of writing. I like my backyard, and even better, my parents’ backyard. But when all else really fails, I’ll jot out whatever in the notes on my phone. I’m picky, but not picky at all. And if I’m on deadline, I will make that deadline come hell or high water or plague or fire or mass destruction.

8. Do the people in your life ever read what you write, or do you tend to not show them? Not fanfiction. I’m very, very protective of my writing in general. My mom was an English teacher (in fact, she was MY English teacher in tenth grade), and even when I was an undergrad getting my B.A. in English comp, she read all my essays with a red pen (after they’d been graded--and I graduated with a 4.0 in my major!). When I published my original short, she was so proud--and then she pointed out a glaring continuity mistake I had missed in about nine million rounds of editing. When I read my own stuff, I only see the mistakes, so I’m also shy about showing it to anyone else. That said, I have about a million partial fics rotting on my hard drive, phone notes, and Google docs, so someone might want to go after them if I ever shuffle off this mortal coil. 

9. What inspires you? Oh my, so much. Music, other people’s stories, history, walks in the woods, the way the lights in the children’s room at the library change color. Literally everything. Probably the better question is who pushes me, and the answer to that is @dammittmarie, who got me into the school’s Dead Poets Society in undergrad (we met at midnight in the basement of the library and damn, we were cool) and the beautiful @rain-and-roses-in-the-city, who puts up with my crazy ideas, my headcanons, lets me play in her sandbox, and sometimes has even seen the partial stories I talked about earlier. 

10. What’s the weirdest character you’ve ever created? Don’t really have one.

11. What’s the most boring character you’ve ever created? All of them, it feels like sometimes :)

12. Do you name your background characters? Do you even have them? I learned a hard lesson about knowing my characters, so now, if I can’t flesh them out, they don’t appear. 

13. Are you one of the writers who writes in symbolism and specifically thinks about things like the color of a hat or that kind of thing? Or do you just pick those things at random? Sometimes. Not always.

14. Are there any authors you feel have influenced your style? Published authors, fanfic authors, ect. I learn things from everywhere. My gold standard for plot twists is the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which made me screech out loud on an airplane years ago. I think the Hamilton fandom in particular is full of talent, and the WhamFam especially (you know who you are). And going back to @dammittmarie, she’s the one who made me unashamed of being a whump writer. 

15. Were you a story teller before you could write? Yes! I devoured books as a kid, and handwriting came super hard to me. You couldn’t read my penmanship until I was in junior high, so I learned storytelling in the oral tradition first. 

16. How many characters have you created? Not too many. I tend not to write OCs in fanfiction for fear of them coming out like total, obvious Mary Sues. There are maybe a dozen characters in “Swan Song.”

17. Do your stories tend to take place in the real world or in a fantasy world? Both? Neither?

That depends on the story

18. Do you tend to set your stories in the present or the past or the future? Do you think about when it’s set or does that not factor into the story?

Whatever works on a given day for a given story, I guess. I love, love, love the canon era of Hamilton, but I also like modern AUs if they’re done well. So yeah, whatever works. 

19. What kind of things do you like to write? Poetry? Short stories? Novels? Fanfiction? Children’s Books? Nonfiction? Something else entirely? Fan fiction for pleasure. My professional life includes writing book reviews, blog posts on various topics, and newsletters, so fan fiction is escapism for me.

20. Do you like to do events like NaNoWriMo or the Three Day Novel, or do you prefer to do things at your own pace? Yes and no. In my professional life, I’m a volunteer blogger and reviewer on top of the demands of my day job, so I’m almost always on deadline for something. (Right this second is actually an exception--I wrote two articles this weekend and I’m deadline-free until at least April 1.) I tend to write fan fiction at my own (snail on a strong sedative’s) pace, but I have signed up for NaNoWriMo a few times, and I might do Camp NaNo in April because I have a 5k exchange piece due at the end of the month. And the one piece that I’ve published that wasn’t fan fiction actually got finished because I went to a signing where there were like six people and ended up pouring my heart out to this poor author. I told her I had a story and no idea how to start, and she told me to write 100 words a day for 100 days and tweet her my word count every day. If I missed a day, I had to start over. I made it to 100 days, just over 11,000 words, and that piece is good--you can even buy it on Amazon.

[agent-fitz]

All of the places!!!!

amsterdam: Do people think you are a complete "alien"?

idk. in some ways, maybe? it just depends on the group of people you’re asking. i feel like an alien at work sometimes. i take things too seriously and don’t talk like a teenager/say mean things all the time so...yeah.

athens: Are you a perfectionist?

yes. it’s like the most key part of my personality, unfortunately.

belgrade: Tell me about the nicknames people give you.

carlita, cj, jade, sissy, sally, bear

berlin: How often can you get everything you really want?

what does this question even mean? wouldn’t the answer always be never? like, i get everything i NEED all of the time, but everything i want...idk, it feels like that only ever happens when i’m up north in the fall or winter.

bratislava: Tell me about the book of your life.

it would be really depressing. but it would be full of triumph. and i’d probably look like a really resilient, strong heroine, even though i normally don’t feel like that.

brussels: Do you use many different languages in a same sentence?

just spanish and english.

bucharest: Have you ever put someone in the Friend Zone?

oh, yeah. i have been hated for it.

budapest: Have you ever been put in the Friend Zone?

yeah, i think so? by crushes and stupid stuff like that.

copenhagen: Have you ever kissed or been kissed by a complete stranger?

no.

dublin: Have you ever drunk to forget something and/or someone?

yes.

helsinki: Imagine you have to choose between love and your greatest goal in life. What would be your choice?

love. love should be your greatest goal in life.

kiev: Have you ever felt hurt by words that cut your heart more than a knife could ever do?

absolutely.

Lisbon: Have you ever felt you were - absolutely - born in the wrong country?

haha. i haven’t felt like i was born in the wrong country per se, but i’ve wished i had been born in a different country. just to be able to experience what life is like without being a spoiled american brat.

Ljubljana: Have you ever been mistaken by someone else?

yeah, me and this girl i came into college with were confused for each other often.

London: More sense or more sensibility?

sensibility. 

Luxembourg: Have you ever deeply regretted something you done (and I really mean DEEPLY)?

the only thing i’ve ever deeply, deeply regretted was not saying goodbye to my Nina the last few days she was alive.

Madrid: Which talents you don't have and you really would love to have?

i wish i were good at working out/enjoyed working out? is that a talent? idk, there are people who are naturally good at exercising and others who have to work to do it, you know?

but also, i really wish i were good at drawing and painting. i am not bad, but i have to work hard at it to get better. i wish it were a natural talent.

oh! and interior design. UGH, i wish i were good at that.

Moscow: Are you able you sleep well every night?

most nights, yeah. i go through periods of time where i don’t sleep well though.

Nicosia: How often do you fall into a state of procrastination?

i think at every moment i’m procrastinating on something, you know?

Oslo: What would give you absolute peace of mind?

....hm. i think the only thing that could would be if i could ENTIRELY comprehend the love God has for me. and that I could entirely comprehend that He died for me and there is nothing left for me to do, nothing left that is expected of me except to just let Him love me. if I could just get my head around that.

Paris: Are you afraid of falling in love (in general or for a specific person)?

i’m afraid of love even though it’s all i want.

Podgorica: Would you die for what you believe?

yes. i’d like to think i would.

Prague: Are you a jealous person?

yes.

Reykjavik: If you had to choose a country in the World to live forever and ever, which one it would be?

hmmm. probably ireland. 

Riga: Would you take and publish a selfie if someone asked you to?

haha, idk? maybe?

Rome: Have you ever experienced undeniable and true love in any form?

the love i have for my sisters.

Sarajevo: How far would you go for the ones you love?

i would kill for them. i would die for them. 

Skopje: What was the sweetest thing anyone called you?

sometimes Ben will call me “the best of wives and best of women” like in Hamilton. i tell him i want that put on my grave. haha.

Sofia: Have you ever been a victim of any form of prejudice?

sexism, because it’s just inherent, and maybe prejudice against Christians. but i mean, i’m fairly lucky in that regard.

Stockholm: Have you ever felt that you were an inspiration for someone else?

sometimes.

Tallinn: What was the strangest rumour you heard about yourself?

idk...? i wasn’t really ever important enough to have rumors said about me.

Tirana: Do you consider yourself a sexy person?

haha. no.

Valletta: Have you ever had a car or bike accident?

car accidents. bleh. they suck.

Vienna: Choose a song to define your life and explain it.

this is really hard. i know i’m not picking the perfect song cause i just don’t have the time to look for it. but i think i’d pick Lost Boy by Ruth B. i think in one way or another i’ve always felt lost or abandoned in my life, and make believe worlds are something that has helped me keep going. 

Vilnius: Would you change your nationality if you had the chance?

yeah, i would. i’d rather be greek. or fully puerto rican. or from any spanish speaking country. or even just fully italian, i mean, whatever. 

Warsaw: Have you ever suffered a depression?

depression is an assassin that’s been chasing me my whole life. still hasn’t caught me yet, though.

Zagreb: Have you ever gave your heart to someone who did not deserve it at all?

no one really ever deserves anyone’s heart, do they?

Zurich: How important is money in your life?

i mean, i say that it isn’t that important. in contrast to some americans i definitely don’t care about mine much. but at the same time, if i didn’t have the luxuries i have with my money i’m sure i’d miss it.

[mikeyd1986]

CIRCLES - WINTER PROGMANIA TOUR w/ Ebonivory, Transience, M0DAL1TY & Red Lotus @ Sooki Lounge, August 2019

It’s been approximately four months since I last wrote up a gig review. I’ve legitimately had moments where I’ve felt like throwing in the towel for good including not attending local shows anymore. The last six months have been rocky to say the least. My sense of connection and importance to the local music scene has significantly diminished plus I haven’t been enjoying the last few gigs I’ve attended this year. My poor mental health, lack of motivation and low energy levels have all contributed to this. And so sadly I haven’t been out as much.

I’ve also become a lot more selective about which bands I decide to support and which venues I feel comfortable going to. The last time I attended Stay Gold in June, things really blew up in my face. For some reason, the loud and crowded club atmosphere of the venue was really making me feel uncomfortable and I didn’t stick around that long at all. Plus I felt really invisible, even with the few band members who recognised me, it wasn’t enough to leave on a positive note. I just didn’t have a good night overall.

So why do I keep doing this? Knowing that there’s a decent chance that I’m going to walk away feeling like crap again? Especially if I don’t manage to find some sort of enjoyment, social connection or feeling of appreciation? Simply because I love music and I love supporting local bands. I can’t allow my weaknesses, conditions and limitations to get in the way from living my life which includes attending local shows. Plus the Sooki Lounge is relatively close to home for me and a much more chilled out venue for me.

It felt humbling to know that people were pleased to see me even after a lengthy hibernation away from the local music scene. In a lot of ways, I don’t believe that I’ve truly left as supporting bands will always be a part of my life. And it felt good to be in a mostly positive state of mind tonight even when the venue did start to get crowded. I also didn’t feel much internal pressure to strike up conversations with every person in the room that I knew. Sometimes you just want to be left alone, to enjoy your own company and focus on watching the bands play.

RED LOTUS are a band I’ve seen a couple of times before. Some of the samples had a distinct Middle Eastern flavouring to them with heavy prog-rock riffs and breakdowns thrown into the mix.  Lead vocalist Steph shined throughout their set, showing off her wide, emotion-filled vocal range. Despite some brief technical issues with the samples, this was easily one of their strongest performances to date. Set List: Illuminate, The Furthest Shore, Symbiosis. https://music.apple.com/au/album/illuminate/1264901265

M0DAL1TY are a five-piece progressive rock/metal band from Melbourne. When I first listened to them, I could detect some strong influences from bands such as Karnivool, The Mars Volta and Closure in Moscow. I thought that the lead vocalist Nigel harmonised really well with backing vocalist and bassist Alicia throughout their set, balancing melodic cleans with harsh screams. Check out their latest single “Redemption” here: https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/m0dal1ty

TRANSIENCE are a heavy progressive rock outfit from Melbourne. The band have been established for seven years now but tonight was my first time seeing them play live. They had a relentless energy about them combining intense bass lines with passionate vocals. For some reason, they reminded me of an English based band, maybe something like Radiohead minus all the electronic stuff. Their songs were also quite lengthy and epic in scope. I enjoyed them a lot. Check out their latest single “Words” here: http://www.transienceband.com/

EBONIVORY was the band I was most keen to see play tonight. In only four short years, the band has continued to grow and evolve from their modest beginnings in Ballarat. They combine perplexing guitar solos, vibrant electronics and jaw-dropping vocals with deeply introspective lyrics. After several lineup changes and a handful of singles dropped, they always manage to put on a live performance which is both entertaining and awe-inspiring. Tonight was no exception as the crowd seemed very impressed by their performance. Set List: Hanmer Street, A Colour I’m Blind To, Patting The Black Dog, Light The Fires. https://music.apple.com/us/album/patting-the-black-dog/1468986778?i=1468986781

CIRCLES are a four-piece progressive rock outfit from Melbourne. Unfortunately I didn’t stick around for their set tonight. However, you should check out their new album called “The Last One” which is available here: http://hyperurl.co/circlestlo

“Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here. Here comes the sun, here comes the sun. And I say it's all right.” George Harrison - Here Comes The Sun (1969)

[mlmcompanies]

Oriflame wants to be Prom Queen at the MLM Ball, and they just might win the crown…if they can knock out a few serious contenders on their way to the top.

Their vision is to become the #1 beauty direct sales company in the world, and they’re only a few slots off. However, some of the beauty queens ahead of them (Avon, with over $6 billion in annual revenue, and Mary Kay, with almost $4 billion) don’t take kindly to competition.

Should you get involved in Oriflame?

Keep reading to find out.

FAQ

1. What does Oriflame sell? Oriflame sells skin care products, cosmetics, fragrances, personal and hair care, accessories, and wellness products.

2. What are Oriflame’s most popular products? Some of Oriflame’s popular products are their Royal Velvet Night Cream for skin over 40; the ONE IlluSkin Face Primer, a tone-enhancing face primer that evens the skin tone and extends the wear of your foundation; the diamond Cellular Micellar Solution Cleanser, an all-in-one cleanser, toner, and makeup remover made with Micellar technology; and NovAge, scientifically advanced skin care designed to correct and slow the signs of aging.

3. How much does it cost to join Oriflame? You can join for free, but it’s recommended that you buy a start-up case for 20 Euros. (While they have a U.K./U.S. catalog, they don’t recruit distributors in the U.S. Good luck if you’d like to build a business state-side.)

4. Is Oriflame a scam? No, Oriflame is a publicly traded company that’s well-respected for their quality products.

5. What is Oriflame’s BBB rating? A+

6. How long has Oriflame been in business? Since 1967

7. What is Oriflame’s revenue? $1.5 billion

8. How many Oriflame distributors are there? 3 million

9. What lawsuits have been filed? In 2018, Oriflame was slapped for illegally using Fifa World Cup imagery. [1] Also in 2018, Vietnam penalized Oriflame for MLM violations. [2] In 2014, Russia searched Oriflame’s Moscow offices and seized documents related to unpaid taxes amounting to $84 million from 2006 to 2010. Oriflame protested that their tax practices were in accordance with local and international legislation. [3]

10. Comparable companies: Mary Kay, NuSkin

While they offer some great products, the income opportunity offered by Oriflame isn’t nearly as impressive.

Click here for my #1 recommendation

Either way, here’s the full review on Oriflame.

Overview

Oriflame is a Swedish cosmetics MLM founded in 1967 by brothers Jonas Jochnick and Robert Jochnick. They have been a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ since 2004.

Since launching 50 years ago, they’ve expanded to operate in over 60 countries around the globe, and they now have a Salesforce of 3 million independent consultants.

They’re currently doing over $1.5 billion in annual sales, making them one of the few members of the coveted MLM Billion Club (those that have hit $1 billion in annual sales). There were only 20 MLMs to do this in 2016. [4]

Their corporate offices are now located in Luxemburg and Switzerland, and they have global production centers in Sweden, Poland, China, Russia, and Ireland.

Oriflame has expanded to sell its products in almost every corner of the globe…except the United States, interestingly.

They sell all over Europe, in Asia, Latin America, Africa…but nowhere north of Mexico. You can still order Oriflame products from their UK website and have them shipped to the U.S. (with international shipping costs), but they don’t have any consultants reppin’ the red, white, & blue (the bald eagle-lovin’, burger eatin’ red white and blue, not the baguette and stinky cheese one).

How much does Oriflame cost?

It is free to become an Oriflame consultant. Yep, 100% free. You do need to purchase a catalog so you can show off your products to potential customers, but the catalogs cost something like $.35 cents.

If you don’t make any sales for 12 months, you will lose your Consultant title and have to sign up again if you want to continue selling. If you don’t sell anything for a year, you should probably just throw in the towel anyway.

Products

The Oriflame catalog consists of over 1,000 Swedish beauty products that are naturally-inspired and vegan.

They have a Skin Research Institute where new, innovative products are created. They’re then sent to the company’s global research and development center where they employ over 100 scientists to test and perfect new products.

Products are all naturally-based and vegan. They include makeup, fragrance, skincare, bath and body, hair, accessories, and men’s products.

Here are some top sellers:

White Original Eau de Parfum: £30

5-in-1 Color Stylist Lipstick: £10

5-in-1 Wonder Lash Mascara: £9

Eleo Hair Mask: £7.95

Age Revive Anti-Aging Cream: £5.95 (sale)

Blackhead Clearing Mask: £7

As you can see, very reasonably priced. Anti-aging cream for £5.95? There are some MLMs that sell that stuff for triple-digits. Whether or not it actually works is another question – you get what you pay for.

Benefits

Benefits associated with their skincare products have not been proven, but claims include:

Anti-aging

Minimize wrinkles

Moisturize

Fight blackheads

Prevent acne

Clear blemishes

Side Effects

There are no known side effects associated with Oriflame products.

Compensation Plan

Commission on personal sales is made via retail commission, which is the price difference between your discounted price as a consultant and the product’s actual retail value.

If you purchase less than £130 worth of product at a time, you get a 20% discount. If you purchase over £130 worth of product at a time, you get a 30% discount.

So that’s an added 10% in commission, which is pretty significant. Therefore, you really want to be making orders of £130 or more at a time. Parties are the best way to do this (eyeroll at in-home parties), because if you’re selling to one friend at a time you probably won’t hit that mark. You might end up ordering extra product to get 30% commission and hoping to sell it only to be left with a basement full of unused skin cream.

There’s also a delivery charge of £4.50 per order.

The rest of the comp plan is pretty typical MLM…levels, bonuses, and rank advancements galore.

If you can build a team of at least 5 members with 4 direct recruits and total monthly sales that hit 1000 BP (about £1,300), you become a group manager and start making money off your team. You get 9% commission on all of your direct consultants, an extra 5% commission on all of your personal sales, and 6% commission off any of your direct promoted Group Managers.

After that, you become a Senior Group Manager and start earning on indirect consultants in your downline too (5%). As a District Manager, 4.5% bonus is tacked onto all your commission rates on both personal sales and the sales of members in your downline.

This continues on and on to Executive Director rank, where you can really get rich off this scheme. Of course, that ranking includes only a handful of the company’s millions of consultants.

Recap

There’s almost no barrier to entry. It’s free to join.

So, if you really like their products, it’s a great way to get a good discount. Who knows, maybe you’ll even make a few bucks selling eye cream and mascara to your gal pals or coworkers.

What you’re not going to get, though, is rich. That’s just the way MLM is set up – a select few make it to the top of the pyramid and leech off everyone below them.

This company has been around long enough to already have plenty of top consultants, meaning there’s not much room for you to make your way up there.

I’ve been involved with network marketing for almost ten years so I know what to look for when you consider a new opportunity.

After reviewing 200+ business opportunities and systems out there, here is the one I would recommend:

Click here for my #1 recommendation

[antionetterparker]

Oriflame: Cosmetics that dazzle but won’t make you rich [Review]

Oriflame wants to be Prom Queen at the MLM Ball, and they just might win the crown…if they can knock out a few serious contenders on their way to the top.

Their vision is to become the #1 beauty direct sales company in the world, and they’re only a few slots off. However, some of the beauty queens ahead of them (Avon, with over $6 billion in annual revenue, and Mary Kay, with almost $4 billion) don’t take kindly to competition.

Should you get involved in Oriflame?

Keep reading to find out.

FAQ

1. What does Oriflame sell? Oriflame sells skin care products, cosmetics, fragrances, personal and hair care, accessories, and wellness products.

2. What are Oriflame’s most popular products? Some of Oriflame’s popular products are their Royal Velvet Night Cream for skin over 40; the ONE IlluSkin Face Primer, a tone-enhancing face primer that evens the skin tone and extends the wear of your foundation; the diamond Cellular Micellar Solution Cleanser, an all-in-one cleanser, toner, and makeup remover made with Micellar technology; and NovAge, scientifically advanced skin care designed to correct and slow the signs of aging.

3. How much does it cost to join Oriflame? You can join for free, but it’s recommended that you buy a start-up case for 20 Euros. (While they have a U.K./U.S. catalog, they don’t recruit distributors in the U.S. Good luck if you’d like to build a business state-side.)

4. Is Oriflame a scam? No, Oriflame is a publicly traded company that’s well-respected for their quality products.

5. What is Oriflame’s BBB rating? A+

6. How long has Oriflame been in business? Since 1967

7. What is Oriflame’s revenue? $1.5 billion

8. How many Oriflame distributors are there? 3 million

9. What lawsuits have been filed? In 2018, Oriflame was slapped for illegally using Fifa World Cup imagery. [1] Also in 2018, Vietnam penalized Oriflame for MLM violations. [2] In 2014, Russia searched Oriflame’s Moscow offices and seized documents related to unpaid taxes amounting to $84 million from 2006 to 2010. Oriflame protested that their tax practices were in accordance with local and international legislation. [3]

10. Comparable companies: Mary Kay, NuSkin

While they offer some great products, the income opportunity offered by Oriflame isn’t nearly as impressive.

Click here for my #1 recommendation

Either way, here’s the full review on Oriflame.

Overview

Oriflame is a Swedish cosmetics MLM founded in 1967 by brothers Jonas Jochnick and Robert Jochnick. They have been a publicly traded company on the NASDAQ since 2004.

Since launching 50 years ago, they’ve expanded to operate in over 60 countries around the globe, and they now have a Salesforce of 3 million independent consultants.

They’re currently doing over $1.5 billion in annual sales, making them one of the few members of the coveted MLM Billion Club (those that have hit $1 billion in annual sales). There were only 20 MLMs to do this in 2016. [4]

Their corporate offices are now located in Luxemburg and Switzerland, and they have global production centers in Sweden, Poland, China, Russia, and Ireland.

Oriflame has expanded to sell its products in almost every corner of the globe…except the United States, interestingly.

They sell all over Europe, in Asia, Latin America, Africa…but nowhere north of Mexico. You can still order Oriflame products from their UK website and have them shipped to the U.S. (with international shipping costs), but they don’t have any consultants reppin’ the red, white, & blue (the bald eagle-lovin’, burger eatin’ red white and blue, not the baguette and stinky cheese one).

How much does Oriflame cost?

It is free to become an Oriflame consultant. Yep, 100% free. You do need to purchase a catalog so you can show off your products to potential customers, but the catalogs cost something like $.35 cents.

If you don’t make any sales for 12 months, you will lose your Consultant title and have to sign up again if you want to continue selling. If you don’t sell anything for a year, you should probably just throw in the towel anyway.

Products

The Oriflame catalog consists of over 1,000 Swedish beauty products that are naturally-inspired and vegan.

They have a Skin Research Institute where new, innovative products are created. They’re then sent to the company’s global research and development center where they employ over 100 scientists to test and perfect new products.

Products are all naturally-based and vegan. They include makeup, fragrance, skincare, bath and body, hair, accessories, and men’s products.

Here are some top sellers:

White Original Eau de Parfum: £30

5-in-1 Color Stylist Lipstick: £10

5-in-1 Wonder Lash Mascara: £9

Eleo Hair Mask: £7.95

Age Revive Anti-Aging Cream: £5.95 (sale)

Blackhead Clearing Mask: £7

As you can see, very reasonably priced. Anti-aging cream for £5.95? There are some MLMs that sell that stuff for triple-digits. Whether or not it actually works is another question – you get what you pay for.

Benefits

Benefits associated with their skincare products have not been proven, but claims include:

Anti-aging

Minimize wrinkles

Moisturize

Fight blackheads

Prevent acne

Clear blemishes

Side Effects

There are no known side effects associated with Oriflame products.

Compensation Plan

Commission on personal sales is made via retail commission, which is the price difference between your discounted price as a consultant and the product’s actual retail value.

If you purchase less than £130 worth of product at a time, you get a 20% discount. If you purchase over £130 worth of product at a time, you get a 30% discount.

So that’s an added 10% in commission, which is pretty significant. Therefore, you really want to be making orders of £130 or more at a time. Parties are the best way to do this (eyeroll at in-home parties), because if you’re selling to one friend at a time you probably won’t hit that mark. You might end up ordering extra product to get 30% commission and hoping to sell it only to be left with a basement full of unused skin cream.

There’s also a delivery charge of £4.50 per order.

The rest of the comp plan is pretty typical MLM…levels, bonuses, and rank advancements galore.

If you can build a team of at least 5 members with 4 direct recruits and total monthly sales that hit 1000 BP (about £1,300), you become a group manager and start making money off your team. You get 9% commission on all of your direct consultants, an extra 5% commission on all of your personal sales, and 6% commission off any of your direct promoted Group Managers.

After that, you become a Senior Group Manager and start earning on indirect consultants in your downline too (5%). As a District Manager, 4.5% bonus is tacked onto all your commission rates on both personal sales and the sales of members in your downline.

This continues on and on to Executive Director rank, where you can really get rich off this scheme. Of course, that ranking includes only a handful of the company’s millions of consultants.

Recap

There’s almost no barrier to entry. It’s free to join.

So, if you really like their products, it’s a great way to get a good discount. Who knows, maybe you’ll even make a few bucks selling eye cream and mascara to your gal pals or coworkers.

What you’re not going to get, though, is rich. That’s just the way MLM is set up – a select few make it to the top of the pyramid and leech off everyone below them.

This company has been around long enough to already have plenty of top consultants, meaning there’s not much room for you to make your way up there.

I’ve been involved with network marketing for almost ten years so I know what to look for when you consider a new opportunity.

After reviewing 200+ business opportunities and systems out there, here is the one I would recommend:

Click here for my #1 recommendation

via https://mlmcompanies.org/oriflame/